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| Thread ID: 54257 | 2005-02-07 23:46:00 | The legalities of Abandonware | Chilling_Silence (9) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 322595 | 2005-02-07 23:46:00 | Greetings, Ive just been sent a URL from a mate for Abandonware games from years and years back. Is there anything I should/shouldnt know about so called "Abandonware"? Regards Chill. |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 322596 | 2005-02-08 00:09:00 | Wikipedia: "Transfer of this software is still technically unlawful in most jurisdictions (except in cases of owner dissolution) as the copyright is still in effect . Abandonware changes hands based on the presumption that the time and money that a copyright holder would have to spend enforcing the copyright is greater than any money the holder would earn selling software licenses . Often the availability of abandonware on the Internet is related to the willingness of copyright holders to defend their copyrights . " |
godfather (25) | ||
| 322597 | 2005-02-08 00:11:00 | Greetings, Ive just been sent a URL from a mate for Abandonware games from years and years back . Is there anything I should/shouldnt know about so called "Abandonware"? Regards Chill . Those things usually have copyright protection despite being "abandoned" . Copyright protection lasts some 70 years after the death of the individual creator, or 95 - 120 years from publication/creation by a corporate . Some people/corporates wont bother pursuing the matter unless they think there is money in it for them |
vinref (6194) | ||
| 322598 | 2005-02-08 06:37:00 | I always treat abandoware with caution. Some of these abandonware sites are simply repositries of ancient programs still legally owned by an existing company. Sure they couldn't sell them if they tried but some can be techy and have snapped at a few sites. Other abandonware sites have a mix of programs that have been abandoned by the owners as a goodwill gesture, they can't sell it so get a little free exposure. Others abandonware programs are those owned by companies that have gone defunct and are no longer operating. If you were the highly moral type you might do an extensive search to locate the existing owner of the intellectual property rights but for abandonware program ? I did just this for a text based ww2 naval simulator that by todays standards is utter crud but is still the most accurate sim ever made. (If you have a good imagination.) It was made for the amiga and dos and I would gladly pay for it, the company went bust in 94 and after a fair amount of hunting, found it was a dead end, no source of purchase or ownership of the rights. I found it on abandonware and used it with a reasonably clean conscience (after all I had an amiga licence and a full set of disks and I was only running it on one machine at a time) :D |
the highlander (245) | ||
| 322599 | 2005-02-08 06:44:00 | Copyright protection lasts some 70 years after the death of the individual creator, or 95 - 120 years from publication/creation by a corporate. Therefore Chill, if the software was created in 1880 or before it's bound to be OK. |
godfather (25) | ||
| 322600 | 2005-02-08 06:52:00 | 1880 - Gotcha :) | Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 322601 | 2005-02-08 06:59:00 | so.............if the software was created in say 1980 and I set my pc date to.......um.......2080 then I should be ok ???? ;-P | drcspy (146) | ||
| 322602 | 2005-02-08 07:02:00 | so.............if the software was created in say 1980 and I set my pc date to.......um.......2080 then I should be ok ???? ;-P According to copyright law, yep. |
vinref (6194) | ||
| 322603 | 2005-02-08 11:01:00 | Im pretty sure Windows only goes to something like 2053 doesnt it? | Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
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