My point is, even without AI, if all AI were banned tomorrow, all the data centers shut down, what we're doing to the environment WITHOUT AI is most likely going to kill us all and render the Earth uninhabitable, possibly within 100-200 years. It is, as far as science's ability to predict, the end of the human race and almost all life on Earth. People thinking we'll adapt, or that we can just go live on other planets or space stations after this one is destroyed, or that we'll magically find out a solution and have the technological means to fix it, are all frankly delusional and their wishful thinking is unsupported by current climate science and space science.
My point is we can't stop fighting for the environment and throw it under the bus just because AI is the new threat of the day. If you truly believe "the world has already decided it doesn't care about the environment" then there's no point fighting AI or fighting for anything anymore, because if that is the case then we're straight up doomed, humanity is cooked (literally), the game is over, might as well have fun on the way out.
My point is that if you intend on humanity having any future, both these things need to be fought. You can't claim defeat on one and still fight the other, there's no point and you're wasting your time because the other will get you. They're both utterly existential threats, and either one is as completely fatal as the other.
It will be hardly any work once a law passes, because they'll make sure it is. Everyone knows where the proprietary code is. It doesn't just get merged in "by accident" unless you are a really shit developer (and to be fair some are).
Besides, no one is saying they have to open source it. To be honest, the outcome from this petition that I would most like to see is simply a blanket indemnity to the community attempting to revive, continue and improve the software from that point forward. If the law says that it's legal once a software is shut down, for the community to figure out a way to make it work again and make it their own, and puts no further responsibilities on the "rights holder" at all, I think that honestly solves the problem in 99% of cases. It would be nice if they gave the community a hand, released what they could, and tried not to be shit about it, (and I know some of them will be shit about it, but we're pretty resourceful), as long as they're not trying to sue every attempt into oblivion I think we'll make a lot of progress on game preservation and make the gaming world a much better place.