«

[punch999]

taken off of abandonias faq:
Q: What is Abandonware? Is it legal?
A: Wikipedia: "Abandonware is computer software which is no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder. Alternately, the term is also used for software which is still available, but on which further support and development has been deliberately discontinued." Since the software is no longer sold or supported, the copyright holders are not directly harmed in any way. This is why abandonware sites are, for the most part, ignored by the law. The distribution of copyrighted software however is, and will allways be, illegal!

[Titan]

Originally posted by punch999@Jul 18 2005, 01:22 AM
taken off of abandonias faq:
Q: What is Abandonware? Is it legal?
A: Wikipedia: "Abandonware is computer software which is no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder. Alternately, the term is also used for software which is still available, but on which further support and development has been deliberately discontinued." Since the software is no longer sold or supported, the copyright holders are not directly harmed in any way. This is why abandonware sites are, for the most part, ignored by the law. The distribution of copyrighted software however is, and will allways be, illegal!

So true...

We've had this debate many times over before.
If you are intrested, search for them.

Get this topic back on track.

[Caged]

I think the article was overall pretty good and hey, might get us a few more members

[MdaG]

"Happy birthday" is copywrighted!?

[BeefontheBone]

Yup. When it's used on TV they have to pay royalties. There's a joke about it in Futurama (I Second that Emotion) when they sing for Nibbler's birthday.

What day is today? / It's Nibbler's birthday. / What a day for a birthday! / Let's all have some cake.

[Sebatianos]

It's all well and true, but why couldn't they say that we're respecting the copyright holder's wishes too!
I mean we don't host some games because they're ESA protected and HOTU does have them. So we're trying harder to uphold the law - yet the dogs get more credit .
Well at least we're mentioned as the second abandonware site (nobody mentioned the technical support you can get here).

But as to the legal aspect of the article... Well it all depends on the law that's valid in your own country and on international agreements your country has with other countries.
And personally I look at abandonware more as a library of old games then a distribution site. I mean you see a game you like, download it, play it for a while and then delete it (at least I generally do that - no point in keeping the game after it's been finished - unless it's highly replayable - then I try to get the original anyway).

[Playbahnosh]

Originally posted by Sebatianos@Jul 18 2005, 09:47 AM
I mean you see a game you like, download it, play it for a while and then delete it (at least I generally do that - no point in keeping the game after it's been finished - unless it's highly replayable - then I try to get the original anyway).

Sebatianos...sob...you make me so proud
That's EXACTLY what I do. I explained this in the copyright thread sunk away some time ago.

Abandonware is illegal? Don't make me laugh. There are kids downloading not even released games for free, and abandonware is illegal... yeah sure LOL

The companies seize to give tech support or sell their games becouse its not woth it for them and completely forget it. But when somebody declares it abandonware and starts to distribute it to those who like it, the company starts to flame and threaten to sue the hell out of us. Is this just stupid or what?

I think Abandonia is the thruthful copyright owner from the time a company abandoned it's product and Abandonia picked it up. We distribute the game with all their apparel(manuals, cover-shots, misc addons...etc) and WE GIVE TECH SUPPORT! The maker company does not. <_< The differences are: We give the players what they like, we give them support, we are free, and we are friendly

I think Abandonia is just as lawful as any game distributor around... period. :tai:

[Yobor]

I uploaded that article.

[Eagle of Fire]

Heh, it must be the 20th times since I am in abandonware that I have this kind of discussion. What amaze me is that there is still people out there who think Abandonware is legal and claim it to the roofs without knowing better.


Or perhaps it's only me who's bizare?

[Sebatianos]

Originally posted by Playbahnosh@Jul 19 2005, 02:20 AM
Sebatianos...sob...you make me so proud
...
Abandonware is illegal? Don't make me laugh. There are kids downloading not even released games for free, and abandonware is illegal... yeah sure LOL

:wub: - You're really proud of me? :tnx:

Sorry to tell you this but:
If people download stuff that's not released yet, then there's a person hosting it. That person hosting the new game is commiting a big crime (in terms of software distribution).
Abandonia is hosting software that's not for sale anymore. It's doing a good thing, but it's still illegal. We're doing a small crime and our intentions are good.

So the person hosting a new game is (let's give a comparison) person who is stealing new cars.
Abandonia would be someone who picks up rusty old bycicles and restores them.

In any case you took something that doesn't belong to you and that's wrong (you can't simply go to somebody's backyard and take away their bike - even if it is rusty). But because we're doing little demage (basically no demage) and are even doing good deeds (telling people about great old games) - we're not hunted down as criminals.


I do hope though, that some day companies like LucasArts and Sierra would connect to sites like Abandonia. Maybe there could be an arangement - that everytime somebody downloads a Sierra game - their homepage (or on-line store or something) would pop up as comertial for them...