Copyright and games preservation: lessons andopportunities in de-colonization

This presentation explores the legal and material challenges of institutionally preserving video games in a global, post-colonial context governed by IP law.Modern copyright law developed from the 1700s onward in Europe and America and has been applied internationally through the 1995 WTO TRIPS agreement.The global IP legal infrastructure has often been imposed without regard for local systems of ownership (Boateng 2011), which initiatives like the indigenous CARE principles (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) seek to re-incorporate into data and IP management (GIDA 2022) but which have not been universally or legally adopted.Current cultural heritage preservation practices were designed for the collection and maintenance of physical media, much of which was collected in colonial contexts, and are likewise challenging to apply technically to digital media, including video games (Rosborough 2024; Wallace 2022).The considerations being applied to 'decolonize' museums and make IP law fit for digital purposes have common cause.Copyright law generally grants rightsholders exclusive rights to distribute copies of "fixed" works, with clear limitations & exceptions to individuals and institutions for purposes such as quotation and preservation. 1Both copyright and heritage practices generally assume the territorial management of singular objects meant to be 'preserved' in mostly static states, without being copied.This sits uneasily with how 1 See e.g.37 CFR 201.409(b)(19)(US) which allows for the circumvention of digital rights management tools for preservation by an eligible library, archive, or museum.