> Maybe the laws should be changed. But pretending that there's one set of rules for books and then a higher scrutiny for games is utterly backwards

Is it pretending? There actually were different rules in this area for rentals, though it didn't necessarily translate to digital transmission:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_of_America,_Inc._v._B....

> Soon after the settlement, the United States Congress passed the Computer Software Rentals Amendment Act prohibiting software rentals, excluding Nintendo cartridges from similar protections. Although Nintendo criticized the game rental business, they came to accept it, even working with Blockbuster to offer exclusive rental versions of their games. The first-sale doctrine was eventually subverted by end-user license agreements, which describe that the consumer is purchasing a singular, non-transferable license to the software, thus limiting the sale of used software.

Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990

https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/senate-bill/198

> Excludes certain home video game software from the prohibition (including a computer program embodied in a machine or product which cannot be copied during the ordinary operation of such machine or product).

Libraries had a specific carve out as well over software in general "Authorizes nonprofit libraries to lend computer programs if a copyright warning has been affixed to the computer program packaging" which probably wouldn't apply to digital. But, it is wrong to say there weren't different rules for software vs books vs specifically game console software.

The DMCA had lots of flexibility for administrative law to make specific carve outs treating different media circumvention stuff differently for things like preservation:

> Lawmakers opted to create a rulemaking mechanism through the United States Copyright Office to review the state of copyrights and fair use to make limited classes of allowance for fair use which would be considered lawful means of using circumvention technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A...