Everyone knows that nothing lasts forever. Things eventually disappear over time and deteriorate. However, in recent times, it’s happened quickly with digital media. It seems that some companies are taking action to make the most of their media, which has become lost to time.
Most of this has been seen in the video game industry, with Nintendo being the most prominent member. Nintendo hasn’t always been the bad guy, but with more decisions coming out every day, it seems like they’re trying to be. One decision that has been a huge topic of discussion is the takedown of Nintendo’s intellectual property on a website called Vimm’s Lair.
Vimm’s Lair is a storage website for ROMs, essentially old games that are put into a file for emulation. Recently, Nintendo and some other companies have taken down their games from the website by sending DMCAs. This may seem good because emulating games is close to piracy. However, you can make a solid argument for it when these IPs are no longer obtainable.
Nintendo has taken down most games
for their old consoles, like the N64, Game Boy, GameCube, Wii, etc. Some of these games have been added to their subscription-based service Switch Online, where people who own a Nintendo Switch can pay a monthly subscription to get online services for games. When buying this service, you can access official Nintendo emulators for the NES, SNES, and Gameboy with the recent addition of the N64 and Gameboy Advance for Switch Online + Expansion Pack. This may seem cool for people who want the games that are on these services, but most of the games that were taken down are not on said service, and the only way to ever get them is to find them on other websites or get them through physical media, which can be sold for up to thousands of dollars because of their age.
This loss of media doesn’t apply only to video games, as recently, streaming platforms have been seen removing shows from their platform. The kid’s show “Haley’s On” has recently been removed from all streaming services. The show would have become lost media if not for the piracy community archiving the show as it came out. Other shows like “Infinity Train” and Jordan Peele’s “Twilight Zone” have been removed from their respective streaming services and ultimately canceled. Recently, however, some places like YouTube started offering the shows for a low price, but at the time, the media was completely removed from everywhere, and the only way to watch them was to resort to piracy.
Big companies don’t always have the best interest of their customers or even, in some cases, their creators. Stand your ground for the media you love, as you may not have it forever.
