Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
Ebooks and scanned books, taped, ripped and bootlegged music , even old computer games are not likely to disappear into the ether unless there is zero interest in them. Even then they will probably linger on.
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I can guarantee this. I make so many backups of my digital stuff (ebooks, music, games) that I can't store the hard disks anymore. I'm now burying them 10 feet deep into the ground, spread through the entire country.
Someday, people will dig them up and put all the pieces together
As if :P But you're right: Digital stuff can be more easily preserved than physical stuff IF the format to create the works is open, documented, and well supported in its time. In that case, there is a chance that the format will be supported far into the future, or be replaced by a new format to which the works can be converted. If the format used is obscure, not well documented or badly supported, the work will probably end up in oblivion.
It's actually quite easy to find computer games from the 80's online, for every imaginable platform. While it's illegal, nobody actually seems to care, because they're out of print, the machines they run on are not manufactured anymore, and those games don't bring the creators or the publishers any money anymore, not even *if* they still tried to sell them.
It looks like as if the creators and publishers (if they even still exist, and if it's known who has the rights) let the emulator community have fun with the old stuff if they want to.