Question about how to LEGALLY obtain a game designed in 1995

[Narnia]

Does US copyright law apply to a video game that was made in 1995 by a company that no longer exists, is no longer being manufactured or sold (including on websites like ebay and Amazon)? If it does not, would this mean that I could make a copy of the game for my own personal use legally?
If this doesn't make a difference, my friend never uses the game so could I, with my friend's permission, somehow transfer the game from my friend's computer to mine legally (The CD broke/was lost years ago)? Assuming that I deleted the game from my friend's computer afterwards, would this be any different than if my friend had uninstalled it from their computer and then gave me the CD? Assuming that this was legal, how would I go about doing this? It was designed for windows 3.1 (not kidding) and the computer it is on is running windows 95. In addition, I am running windows 7x64 (I know I would have to use an emulator program to run the game on my OS). Many thanks.

PS: The game's name is STARS! It was manufactured by Empire Interactive.
PS: If it makes a difference legally (probably pertaining to something in fair use doctrine), one of the things I like about the game is it gives me some extra incentive to practice what I've been learning in school as the game employs everything from arithmetics, to pre-calc, to statistics, and beyond (I'm in pre-calc). This means that one could argue that copying the game could fall into fair use as "education usage".

If there is no legal way for me to obtain a copy of this game, or if this somehow violates the civfanatics terms of use, please tell me so I can ask an admin to remove this thread. Thanks.

 

[taper]

Does US copyright law apply to a video game that was made in 1995 by a company that no longer exists, is no longer being manufactured or sold (including on websites like ebay and Amazon)?

Yes, the US signed the Berne Convention, all work is copyrighted the moment pen hits paper.

If it does not, would this mean that I could make a copy of the game for my own personal use legally?

If you own a game, you are legally allowed to make one copy for personal backup. This does not mean you can install it on 2 separate computers.

If this doesn't make a difference, my friend never uses the game so could I, with my friend's permission, somehow transfer the game from my friend's computer to mine legally (The CD broke/was lost years ago)? Assuming that I deleted the game from my friend's computer afterwards, would this be any different than if my friend had uninstalled it from their computer and then gave me the CD?

A permanent and total transfer is completely legal under the First Sale doctrine. It must be removed from your friend's computer first.

Assuming that this was legal, how would I go about doing this? It was designed for windows 3.1 (not kidding) and the computer it is on is running windows 95. In addition, I am running windows 7x64 (I know I would have to use an emulator program to run the game on my OS). Many thanks.

Depends. If all files are run from the folder you can just copy it to a new computer and cross your fingers. It likely doesn't though, and without the install media you may be out of luck. Doesn't hurt to try, if nothing else you'll gain a little knowledge about computers.

PS: The game's name is STARS! It was manufactured by Empire Interactive.
PS: If it makes a difference legally (probably pertaining to something in fair use doctrine), one of the things I like about the game is it gives me some extra incentive to practice what I've been learning in school as the game employs everything from arithmetics, to pre-calc, to statistics, and beyond (I'm in pre-calc). This means that one could argue that copying the game could fall into fair use as "education usage".

Not even close to being fair use under education. If it was, copying things like Rosetta Stone or any textbook would be free.

If there is no legal way for me to obtain a copy of this game, or if this somehow violates the civfanatics terms of use, please tell me so I can ask an admin to remove this thread. Thanks.

As long as you permanently transfer the media from a legal owner, no legal issues at all.

 

[Narnia]

Not even close to being fair use under education. If it was, copying things like Rosetta Stone or any textbook would be free.

I didn't think so but I thought it was worth asking.

 

[Narnia]

Depends. If all files are run from the folder you can just copy it to a new computer and cross your fingers. It likely doesn't though, and without the install media you may be out of luck. Doesn't hurt to try, if nothing else you'll gain a little knowledge about computers.

Because the game does not require the CD to run, wouldn't that mean that all the files needed to run the game are located somewhere on the computer's hard-drive and it is just a matter of finding and copying them? Or am I overlooking something?

 

[Zelig]

IIRC you can just copy/paste the files for Stars! to play it. It actually works in Win7 32-bit, but not in 64-bit, because of the 16-bit components.

Honestly, I'm about as anti-piracy as they come in these parts, but I wouldn't pay much mind to US copyright laws in this case. (Not that US copyright laws are relevant to any of my anti-piracy/copyright opinions.)

I actually have a legit copy of Stars! buried somewhere, if it makes you feel any better, I have no problem selling you my license for $0.

 

[illram]

Copyrights are enforced, basically, by the holder of the bundle of rights suing you.* If the copyright holder does not exist, no one is there to enforce them. But be careful about that, because often if a company goes out of business, the copyrights don't just disappear into thin air. Someone else acquires them. This is the case when companies dissolve and go into bankruptcy, etc... so in all likelihood, someone out there does, technically, own the rights to this program.

* Except for criminal infringement, which is enforced by the Department of Justice. They don't get involved unless you basically start selling stuff and making a lot of money.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Legally, you're not allowed to do that. Ethically (thats the closest word I could think of), if the developer doesn't exist anymore, I dont really see a problem with it.

 

[Narnia]

IIRC you can just copy/paste the files for Stars! to play it. It actually works in Win7 32-bit, but not in 64-bit, because of the 16-bit components.

Honestly, I'm about as anti-piracy as they come in these parts, but I wouldn't pay much mind to US copyright laws in this case. (Not that US copyright laws are relevant to any of my anti-piracy/copyright opinions.)

I actually have a legit copy of Stars! buried somewhere, if it makes you feel any better, I have no problem selling you my license for $0.

Regarding copy pasting the files, wouldn't I also have to access the registry or something like that? Or are all the files needed to run the game in the same place?

Next question. My friend's computer is pre-USB, pre-DVD, I don't think it can write to CDs, only read from them (could be wrong), still has a 3 1/2 floppy disk drive (is this the right term?), and in all other ways is a dinosour. My computer is brand new (no floppy drive). Any ideas how to transfer the files? Also, my friend's computer is not connected to the internet so I can't use something like email. I'm pretty sure that it is also pre-network cables.

About the not working on a 7x64 OS, I've heard that it can be run on windows 7x64 using Virtual Windows XP.

 

[Narnia]

The Great News:
There are apparently two versions of stars, a shareware version and a sale version! The only difference between the two is the commercial version has sound. I've known this for a while but I thought that all the sites with the shareware version had closed down years ago. I however just stumbled across a site with the shareware version! The site looked legit and I scanned the shareware version with Microsoft Security Essentials and it was reported clean! However because I have a 64 bit OS, I need to use an emulator program to run the game. I did some research and reportedly windows 7x64 home premium is compatible with the older 2007 version of virtual PC.
The Bad News:
I have no idea how to set up or use virtual PC. I installed it but when I ran the program it said that I need to configure a new Virtual PC Console but I don't have a clue how to do this and I don't want to mess something up. Could messing this up could damage my system? If so, then can someone walk me through it? Thanks


Edit: failed at the Virtual PC. Got dosbox working however. Thanks

 

[Zelig]

Virtual PC 2007 works on Win7, but isn't really supported, I'd probably just use VirtualBox.

If you don't have a license for Windows XP to use on VirtualBox, Stars! apparently works fine with Wine.

And the unregistered shareware version limits you to tech level 10, you probably don't want that...