Abandonware

aimeeandbeatles

watermelon
Joined
Apr 5, 2007
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What do you think of abandonware? (software that is no longer sold in retail, and in most cases is not supported by the publishing compnay).

the gamers say the companies aren't selling it anymore, and aren't losing $. but the companies say it doesnt matter cause it's still copyrighted.

I think its okay... cause how else can you get the games other than ebay (overpriced) or yard sale (HAHAHA)
 
I think its okay, but with a few conditions:

1. It cannot be sold comercially any more, at all, at all, at all. If the copyright holder starts selling it again, then it shouldn't be available for download anymore.
2. If the copyright holder asks for the game to be removed from the list, it has to be.

Basically, you should use it until someone cares. Home of the Underdogs has over five thousand games to download. Those games copyright holders probably know it exists, but apperently dont care. Thus, theres nothing wrong with it.
 
There are some very good legal remakes I find. I used to love Head Over Heels on the spectrum, I picked up a great remake of that and now I realise how stupidly hard it is.

You can also get FreeCiv for CivII action off the net if you like.
 
If the company says you cannot download it, then you shouldn't. It is their product, and if they want it to "sit on a shelf" and not let anyone touch it, that's their right as the legal owners. Just because something exists, that doens't gove people the right to it.
 
Ethically it falls short of being ok if no harm occurs to the publishers and retailers, but legally it's risky behavior, if relatively low risk. If you view it as a shareware demo, and then go on to buy a legit copy, I view it as ethically ok. But the burden of whether or not you can still legally buy a copy from some kind of store front is on you, and you assume all legal risk.

Realistically, it will never be ok without getting a copyright holder's permission, so you could argue it until you're :( in the face, but you'll never convince a judge or jury that it's ok with such a flimsy arguement.

In short why mess with it? Get a job, upgrade your computer, and buy new games.

I'm completely against piracy of currently sold titles though. That's just plain selfish evil.

What do you think of abandonware? (software that is no longer sold in retail, and in most cases is not supported by the publishing compnay).

the gamers say the companies aren't selling it anymore, and aren't losing $. but the companies say it doesnt matter cause it's still copyrighted.

I think its okay... cause how else can you get the games other than ebay (overpriced) or yard sale (HAHAHA)
 
Abandoneware is a fiction, invented by those that want to blur their wrongdoing.

A game is either on the Public Domain, and free for the taking, or the copyright to it is held by *someone*. Unless the copyright holder has explicitly said that the game is free for the taking (essentially in the Public Domain), then it is illegal to download it from anywhere but a site approved by the copyright holder, which generally means their site, or that of a licensee.

Because of corporations "buying" legislation, copyright is now much more restrictive than it was intended to be. It was supposed to provide the "author" with a relatively short period of exclusivity, and then the material would belong to the Public Domain, to further enrich the minds of all. Instead, copyright these days can last for over a hundred years! For instance, nothing that has been copyrighted since the mid-1930s is in the Public Domain, yet, unless explicitly placed there by the copyright holders.
 
Because of corporations "buying" legislation, copyright is now much more restrictive than it was intended to be. It was supposed to provide the "author" with a relatively short period of exclusivity, and then the material would belong to the Public Domain, to further enrich the minds of all. Instead, copyright these days can last for over a hundred years! For instance, nothing that has been copyrighted since the mid-1930s is in the Public Domain, yet, unless explicitly placed there by the copyright holders.

That's too bad that society has gotten to that point. Nevertheless, I will not state one way or the other what I do. But my rule of thumb is that I set my own level of ethical behavior. If I should get caught doing something illegal, well, I guess the consequences are mine and mine alone. I've always gone by the standard of 'you reap whatever you sow'
 
What do you think of abandonware? (software that is no longer sold in retail, and in most cases is not supported by the publishing compnay).

the gamers say the companies aren't selling it anymore, and aren't losing $. but the companies say it doesnt matter cause it's still copyrighted.

I think its okay... cause how else can you get the games other than ebay (overpriced) or yard sale (HAHAHA)

I have no moral problem with abandonware.
 
If you really want a game, but there's no way to get it legally, I don't see an ethical problem in downloading it, certainly if it's on a decent like Home of the Underdogs, which has no "evil" intentions whatsoever.

There might still be a legal problem, but as said before by others, as long as nobody is hurt, that's something up to each individual to decide upon for his own.
 
Abandonware isn't a fiction - clearly there exist examples that fall into the definition, and the word "abandonware" is a simple way of referring to it.

I think the problem would be helped if we didn't have such excessively long copyright terms - and surely this is only going to get worse as time goes on. What about when we are trying to get hold of 90 year old computer games and music, that's still copyrighted, but not available? Large amounts of 20th and 21s Century culture could end up disappearing into a black hole...

There are some very good legal remakes I find.
Note that remakes can be on dodgy grounds legally too - for example, a roleplaying game would have characters and a storyline, all of which are covered by copyright, even if you recreate it all from scratch.
 
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