question: Why do gaming companies forbid pirating their outdated products (90s and 00s consoles emulators and ROMs, for example), if it doesn't hurt them, and they can't realistically make money off of it?
comment: I can think of 2 reasons: protecting company ip but more so anticipating the future revenue generated from rereleasing said old games (ie Nintendo).
passages: Untangling copyright issues also presents a significant challenge for digital preservation projects. A non-video game example is the BBC Domesday Project. In addition to the individual copyrights of the estimated 1 million people who took part in the project, there are also copyright issues that relate to the technologies employed. It is likely that the Domesday Project will not be completely free of copyright restrictions until at least 2090, unless copyright laws are revised for earlier expiration of software into the public domain.
  
  Section::::Obsolescence in hardware.
   Emulators are typically created by third parties, and the software they run is often taken directly from the original games and put online for free download. While it is completely legal for anyone to create an emulator for any hardware, unauthorized distribution of the code for a retro game is an infringement of the game's copyright. Some companies have made public statements regarding the issues, such as Nintendo, stating that "the introduction of emulators created to play illegally copied Nintendo software represents the greatest threat to date in the intellectual property rights of video game developers". However, video game developers and publishers typically turn a blind eye to emulation. One reason for this is that at any given time, most of the games illegally distributed for emulation are not presently being sold by the company which owns the game, and so the damages the company would collect in the event of a successful lawsuit would most likely be negligible.
   BULLET::::- "Metal Gear Solid" and many other computer games require a piece of information from the game's jewel case for the player to progress after a certain point, making unauthorized copies effectively worthless without the original jewel case; however, in the present day, said information can be easily be found on the Internet.
  
  BULLET::::- Microsoft removes Windows Vista and Microsoft Office from various torrent trackers.
  
  BULLET::::- Certain SNES games such as "Super Mario All Stars" and "Donkey Kong Country" may sometimes show warning screens, usually caused by dirty or damaged cartridges or use of third-party peripherals.
   There are legalities related to emulation that can make it difficult to preserve video games in this manner. First, the legality of creating an emulator itself is unclear. Several United States case laws have shown that developing emulation is a legal activity as long as no proprietary information or copyrighted code is incorporated into the emulation.
  
  Section::::Preservation of video game software.:Migration.
  
  Migration refers to rereleasing software from one platform to a newer platform, otherwise keeping all the gameplay, narrative, and art assets the same. This can be done through a few routes:
   BULLET::::- The "IndyCar Series" (2003 video game) also utilizes FADE technology to safeguard against piracy by making races very difficult to win on a pirated version. The penultimate section of the game’s manual states:
  
  "Copying commercial games, such as this one, is a criminal offense and copyright infringement."br
  
  "Copying and re-supplying games such as this one can lead to a term of imprisonment."br
  
  Think of a pirated game as stolen property.br
  
  "This game is protected by the FADE system. You can play with a pirated game- but not for long. The quality of a pirated game will degrade over time."br
   Section::::Legal issues surrounding retrogaming.
  
  Though many abandonware titles are available for free download on third-party websites, the duration of copyright on creative works in most countries is far longer than the era of home computing.
   In general, the copying and distribution of video games that are under copyright without authorization is considered a copyright violation (often called as software piracy). However, it has generally been allowed that users make may archival copies of software (including video games) as long as they own the original software; if the user sells or destroys the original software, they are expected to destroy the archival copies. This is also justification for a person being able to make ROM images from game cartridges that they own.
   Bruce Schneier argues that digital copy prevention is futile: "What the entertainment industry is trying to do is to use technology to contradict that natural law. They want a practical way to make copying hard enough to save their existing business. But they are doomed to fail." He has also described trying to make digital files uncopyable as being like "trying to make water not wet". The creators of StarForce also take this stance, stating that "The purpose of copy protection is not making the game uncrackable – it is impossible."
  
  Section::::Shortcomings.:Fundamental Bypass.:Analog recording.
   Video game companies consider these devices as a tool for reverse engineering to circumvent copying. Most of the devices are made in China, but they are available globally. Recently, action has been taken by companies such as Nintendo to remove these devices from the marketplace, but the easy dissemination of information and selling of products over the Internet has made it difficult to eradicate this problem. Hobbyists argue that these devices are and should stay legal because they fulfill the need to back up games in case the original is damaged or lost; and because they permit the private development of new software on the device.
   Section::::Shortcomings.:Consumer rights implication.:Obsolescence.
  
  When standards and formats change, it may be difficult to transfer DRM-restricted content to new media, for instance Microsoft's new media player Zune did not support content that uses Microsoft's own PlaysForSure DRM scheme they had previously been selling. 
  
  Furthermore, when a company undergoes business adjustment or even bankrupt, its legacy service may become unavailable. Examples include MSN Music, Yahoo! Music Store, Adobe Content Server 3 for Adobe PDF, Acetrax Video on Demand, etc.
   Some manufacturers have released official emulators for their own consoles. For example, Nintendo's Virtual Console allows users to play games for old Nintendo consoles on the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. Virtual Console is part of Nintendo's strategy for deterring video game piracy. In November 2015, Microsoft launched backwards compatibility of Xbox 360 games on Xbox One console via emulation. Also, Sony announced relaunching PS2 games on PS4 via emulation. According to "Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem", creating an emulator for a proprietary video game console is legal. However, Nintendo claims that emulators promote the distribution of illegally copied games.
   In the case of planned obsolescence, consumer complaints can be made to regulatory agencies, which may pose scrutiny to company that uses DRM to abuse its market dominance.
  
  Section::::Shortcomings.:Consumer rights implication.:Selective Enforcement.
  
  DRM laws are widely flouted: according to Australia Official Music Chart Survey, copyright infringements from all causes are practised by millions of people. According to the EFF, "in an effort to attract customers, these music services try to obscure the restrictions they impose on you with clever marketing."
  
  Section::::Shortcomings.:Economic implication.
  
  Section::::Shortcomings.:Economic implication.:Lost benefits from massive market share.
   While strictly not set up for preservation, the National Software Reference Library, created and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has included a number of popular game software among other software principally used for help in digital forensics, storing electronic copies of these games and other programs. The initial games collection was added in 2016 with numerous titles collected by Stephen Cabrinety, who had died in 1995; in 2018, Valve, Activision-Blizzard, and Electronic Arts all donated additional titles to be added to the collection, while NIST itself purchased other popular titles to include.
  
  Section::::Preservation efforts.:Rereleases.
   Video games are especially vulnerable to this. When the system that a game was designed for becomes obsolete the game itself is frequently forgotten entirely by its manufacturer, becoming abandonware, a kind of orphan work. Computer games have a history dating back to the 1960s, and most of the older examples of the genre are designed to be played using hardware and operating systems that are long outdated. Not only does this mean that the game becomes essentially unplayable, it can also lead to unclear or contested copyright, with ownership being claimed by or attributed to multiple individuals or entities. 
   Most issues related to video game preservation are based on the United States, one of the largest markets for video games, and as such, issues related to preservation are limited by laws of the country.
   Most of the very few cases that have been brought before a court ended with the conviction of the modchip merchant or the manufacturer under the respective country's anti-circumvention laws. A small number of cases in the United Kingdom and Australia were dismissed under the argument that a system's copy protection mechanism would not be able to prevent the actual infringement of copyright—the actual process of copying game media—and therefore cannot be considered an effective technical protection measure protected by anti-circumvention laws. In 2006, Australian copyright law has been amended to effectively close this legal loophole.
   As was the case with unlicensed games, Nintendo has typically gone to the courts to prohibit the manufacture and sale of unlicensed cloned hardware. Many of the clone vendors have included built-in copies of licensed Nintendo software, which constitutes copyright infringement in most countries.
   Companies like GOG.com and Night Dive Studios are recognized for helping to migrate older games to modern systems. Among their efforts include doing the research to track down all legal rights that are associated with a game, including those that have changed hands several times, as to get clearance or rights to republish the title, locate as much of the game's original source code and adapt that to work on modern systems, or when source code is not available, reverse engine the game to either work natively or through emulation (like DOSBox) with modern hardware. GOG.com and Night Dive have successfully freed some games from IP limbo, such as "System Shock 2", while identifying titles that remain difficult to republish and preserve legally due to conflicts on IP rights holders, such as "No One Lives Forever".
   BULLET::::- Manufacturers of recording devices can be required to screen analog inputs for watermarks (or Macrovision or DCS Copy Protection or CGMS-A) and limit recording as a condition of private contracts. For example, a manufacturer who licenses patents or trade secrets associated with a particular DRM scheme might also be obliged as a purely contractual matter to add recording limitations to digital recording products.
   Xbox Play Anywhere games like "ReCore", "Gears of War 4" and "Forza Horizon 3" have also been criticized of being required to be online to be launched and to be authenticated every 24 hours. Denuvo was also immensely criticized of using a similar method, and many tech reviewers had problems benchmarking Denuvo-implemented games like "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands" and "".
  
  As of October 2015, always-online games with single player modes that now have had dead servers for six months and longer are now exempt from DMCA prohibitions on circumventing copyright protection.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Digital distribution
  
  BULLET::::- Phoning home
   While not strictly a software protection, some game companies offered "value-added" goodies with the package, like funny manuals, posters, comics, storybooks or fictional documentation concerning the game (e.g. the Grail Diary for Indiana Jones or a police cadet notebook with "Police Quest" or the Hero's manual of "Quest for Glory" or a copy of the "National Inquisitor" newspaper in "Zak McKracken") in order to entice gamers to buy the package. This trend is re-emerging in modern gaming as an incentive to both buy games and discourage their resale; some games like "Forza Motorsport 3" and "" provide bonus in-game material that will only be given if one buys the game new.
   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, along with support from Linden Lab, running from 2008 to 2010. The study explored a range of games, from "Spacewar!" (1962) through "Second Life" (2003, which was developed by Linden Labs), to determine what methods could be used for preserving this titles. The project concluded while there are technical solutions for preservation of game software, such as identify common formats for digital storage and developing database architectures to track ownership, many issues related to preservation remain legal in nature relating to copyright laws.
  
  Section::::Preservation efforts.:Internet Archive.
   Blizzard Entertainment threatened the developers of bnetd, a freely available clone of battle.net, a proprietary server system used by all Blizzard games on the Internet. Blizzard claims that these servers allow circumvention of its CD key copy protection scheme. (The Electronic Frontier Foundation is currently negotiating a settlement.)
   In February 2016, Internet Archive users had begun archiving digital copies of "Nintendo Power", Nintendo's official magazine for their games and products, which ran from 1988 to 2012. The first 140 issues had been collected, before Nintendo had the archive removed on August 8, 2016. In response to the take-down, Nintendo told gaming website "Polygon", "[Nintendo] must protect our own characters, trademarks and other content. The unapproved use of Nintendo's intellectual property can weaken our ability to protect and preserve it, or to possibly use it for new projects".
  
  Section::::Controversies and legal disputes.:Government of India.
   Attempts at expansion of copyright limitations and exceptions are sometimes regarded as a threat by publishers.
  
  Section::::Competition law / anti-trust law.
  
presuppositions: Gaming companies cannot make money off of old games. Gaming companies don't need to forbid pirating of their outdated Products.
corrections: Gaming companies can rerelease old games and make money. Forbidding pirating of outdated gaming protects both protects the company's ip and makes sure revenues can be obtained if old games are re-released.
raw_presuppositions: Gaming companies cannot make money off of old games. Gaming companies don't need to forbid pirating of their outdated Products.
raw_corrections: Gaming companies can rerelease old games and make money. Forbidding pirating of outdated gaming protects both protects the company's ip and makes sure revenues can be obtained if old games are re-released.