Now that abandonware is legal in the USA...

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svet-am

Supreme [H]ardness
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So, now that abandonware is legal here, I presume it's okay to talk about abandonware in these forums?

Can we share links for abandonware sites now? I'm mostly interested in finding abandonware applications like WordPerfect 5.1 and such.
 
Riddlinkidstoner said:
What is abandonware? Software where the company no longer has legal rights over or something?
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No, it's "software that is no longer generally available to the public (in the form it was originally released)."

So anything released on 5.25" floppy drives and so on. I've never seen abandonware apps. Just games. I don't know why you'd want such old applications, but you can always check http://www.oldversion.com.

For games I like to browse http://www.cdosabandonware.com and http://www.abandonia.com/index2.php. There are others so Google.
 
I see nothing there that says copyright infringement is now ok. It just says it no longer violates the DMCA to circumvent copy protection on obsolete formats.

So if I have old software on floppy it's now legal to break the copy protection and put it on CD. It doesn't allow me to make a CD of software I don't have.
 
You can always backup what you own. You could've copied your floppies to a CD at any time.
 
Well what abandonwear really is, is mostly games and other software that is still under copyright laws and in fact is illegal to copy, but because it is not being reproduced or sold anymore the company will not do anything about it being spread illegaly, aka its not hurting anyone to share so they figure its ok.

So if you want to try to get a game that hasn't been made in years and you can't find it for sale, some abandonwear sites have it.
 
GJSNeptune said:
You can always backup what you own. You could've copied your floppies to a CD at any time.
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Not legally, because the DMCA made it illegal to bypass or circumvent copy protection.
 
BladeVenom said:
Not legally, because the DMCA made it illegal to bypass or circumvent copy protection.
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Please point out where floppies have copy protection.
 
Hmm.. "in the form it was originally released." Does that mean that once a playstation game becomes a "classic" then its abandonware? Or what about if, say.. Grand Theft Auto has a porn scene taken out.. now is it abandonware?

What about once a game is updated..

I need clarification!
 
This isn't going to change anything, It just means that you can download some of your favorite games from the 80's and early 90's and not be breaking the law. Really it just means you can download and distribute the game after the company that made it decides to abandon it, meaning not for sale, not being made, hence abandonwear.

I was really suprised to see my favorite childhood game wasn't abandoned yet. "Eye of the Beholder." but I did get taken down memory lane replaying the origonal "battle isle." Such great games.
 
Seanmounce said:
This isn't going to change anything, It just means that you can download some of your favorite games from the 80's and early 90's and not be breaking the law. Really it just means you can download and distribute the game after the company that made it decides to abandon it, meaning not for sale, not being made, hence abandonwear.

I was really suprised to see my favorite childhood game wasn't abandoned yet. "Eye of the Beholder." but I did get taken down memory lane replaying the origonal "battle isle." Such great games.
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i've seen comments that imply that this also means that video game console ROMs are now legal given that it is "sufficiently difficult" to obtain and use the games in their original distribution format. IE, it is sufficiently difficult to obtain an original copy of "A Boy and His Blob" as well as an original NES console to play it on. Interesting interpretation if that turns out to be true.
 
I don't think it is completely legal, its really the fact that the company isn't going to do anything about a product they don't sell or make anymore being distributed illegally.
 
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