The Video Game History Foundation has beaten a copyright troll and is now able to better preserve Cookie’s Bustle, a Japanese point-and-click PC adventure game from the 1990s.
Cookie’s Bustle is an obscure game that didn’t get much attention or preservation following an initial physical print run around its release in 1999. It’s considered an “orphan work” without a clear owner, and is exactly the kind of game the Video Game History Foundation likes to preserve. A new blog post on the foundation’s website detailed why that process was more complex than usual.
Anytime someone online posted materials related to Cookie’s Bustle in recent years, a company called Graceware Inc. filed DMCA takedown notices to remove the content. That’s because in 2021, Graceware had claimed copyright ownership and filed trademarks related to Cookie’s Bustle. VGHF caught wind of Graceware’s aggressive DMCA strategy after they filed one over a VGHF post about obtaining a copy of the game.
