A recent ruling by the Library of Congress' Copyright Office has left some gamers with the impression they can legally copy and share old-school games.

　　If only it were so.

　　On Tuesday, the LOC did grant an exemption from the dreaded 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) for "accessing computer programs and video games distributed in obsolete formats." The ruling defines "obsolete" by stating: "A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace."

　　Many took this as a governmental green light to start burning and sharing CD-ROMs of all their favorite classic arcade and console games. However, a careful read of the ruling reveals it only applies to cracking the copy protection of older "obsolete" games and nothing else.

　　Under the Fair Use laws, that means you can make one--and only one--backup copy of games you already own. Downloading or sharing copies of games over the Web remains illegal. "You can't distribute it today any more than you could yesterday," said one industry veteran who studied the ruling. "Basically, the only people this really affects are emulator authors; they're free to hack obsolete systems as much as they want without fear of being DMCA'ed."