A win for U.S. gamers with disabilities was just reversed

There wasn't any opposition to extending a gamer-friendly U.S. policy. The actual problem: No one spoke up for it.

Photo by Shirly Niv Marton on Unsplash

In 2021, the United States government made it legal for Americans to break a PC game’s copy protection systems in order to make the game playable for people with disabilities. 

There were some catches, but it was a win. 

The new policy was a potential boon for players whose disabilities prevented them from using traditional game controllers, keyboards and mice. Thanks to the new rule, they could legally breach a PC game’s digital rights software, if that’s what they needed to do to use alternate control devices to play the game. 

The policy breakthrough was the result of an unlikely turn of events involving an exemption to U.S. copyright law. But it was undone a month ago and is no longer on the books, Game File has learned. 

The issue wasn’t that anyone had successfully gotten it removed. No one in 2024 stepped up to oppose it.

To the contrary, in late October, the Library of Congress’ Copyright Office—which considers possible exemptions to U.S. digital copyright law every three years—said it could not extend the accessibility exemption simply because no one had asked it to do so.

The Office even said it supported the policy’s extension but couldn’t keep it going without a request.

That turn of events, which has not previously been reported, had been eclipsed last month by a different ruling issued by the Copyright Office in the same government filing. In it, the office rejected a request by video game researchers for a copyright exemption that would have allowed scholars to remotely access video games preserved in libraries, museums and other historical institutions.

Last month, the scholars’ failed effort received considerable coverage in the press, in part because of a publicity push by gaming preservationists who had called for the exception.

By contrast, the accessibility loophole vanished in the most excruciating way possible, a victim of bureaucracy and inaction.