Abandonware to be legalized?

[croxis]

http://sciencefictionobserver.blogspot.com/2006/12/usa-legalizes-abandonware.html

USA Legalizes Abandonware

According to PCS Intel, the U.S. Copyright Office has issued new rules, effective November 26, enabling public access to commercially unavailable software.

New rules officially permit the use and distribution of so-called Abandonware, or software that is no longer generally available to the public (in the form it was originally released). Meaning, you can now legally use MAME to emulate classic arcade games on your phone (assuming it's powerful enough... and the game is no longer available).

The above article speaks specifically about phone software, and the good news from the original text of Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works is:

Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. 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.

Meaning, your use of classic science fiction games for DOS, such as Dune and Elite, from sites such as Abandonia is officially decriminalized!

 

[Rheinmetall]

Seems like good news for guys like me. You can count a lot of games into that category.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Whoo!! OTTD is mostly legal now!

 

[Ansar]

EDIT: Whoops, thought it said Abadonware (in close relation to our member, Abaddon).

Well, anyways, if the game is actually playable, why not? You could entertain yourself playing a quick game of Tetris (at least that's what I would do).

 

[Maniacal]

I want a better source than someone's blog.

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

I want a better source than someone's blog.

Yes.

But it's only fair that abandonware is legal. If they are not interested in selling it in shops, and the product itself isn't illegal for some reason, then it should be OK to them to make it free.

 

[Maniacal]

A website would conut as a shop, correcto?

I too think Abandonware should be legal.

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

A website would conut as a shop, correcto?

I beg your pardon?


I was a bit short in my last post, but I meant to agree with you. Anything can be written in a blog.

 

[lost_civantares]

By looking around on links you get to this from a government site.

 

[Steve2000]

Well, reading the legal gibberish on the government site that lost_civantares just linked it still seems a bit cloudy. Here is a quote:

2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. 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.

The part that seems tricky is the part I bolded. Sounds like YOU could copy your old DOS games onto CDs for archival purposes, or the Library of Congress could back up their old DOS programs, but I am not sure about hosting them on a website for download.

 

[Padma]

I think Steve hit the nail on the head....

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Wow..i think I actually read this a while ago. And yes, I think as far as sharing goes, it is still illegal because the backups are for archival purposes only. Seems like they actually made legal for adandonware what was already legal for most software. That you can make a backup but only for archival purposes

 

[croxis]

Yes, I read it a while ago too. Heck I think i even posted it a while ago, I thought they were taking it even further

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

so, it's now legal for me to download SNES or Nintendo 64 games to my computer now?

 

[Padma]

No.

Only if you currently own the games.