Does anyone know for sure... is Abandonware illegal to host?

Bluevoodu

Bluevoodu

Site Founder
IE hosting the whole program, not the shareware or whatever?

I am curious if that is illegal or not.... it would be cool to host some of those programs here... IE old Descent, Kings Quests, Terminal Velocity ... and others.

Post it up... does anyone know for sure? OR would companies that are still around get ticked?

†B†V† :hat
 
As far as I know it is still illega.. even though the developers stopped producing the games they still have the copyrights to them

You can check this site, just scroll down their faq to see the issue of it addressed

http://www.the-underdogs.org/faq.php
 
I see... so do those companies ever go and try to beat down the people who host abandonware? What I don't understand is... if they release the source code and all that... why would they care? If they don't care enough and let you see the source, I cannot imagine them getting ticked with you giving the game free..? But then again... if it is illegal... it is illegal.

@ recky.... Yeah, I know what you are saying.... I Am just looking for ways to expand.. grow... gain traffic.... users.. sales... etc. All stones will be turned... if you know what I mean :)


†B†V† :hat
 
Yes, abandonware is illegal to host. I don't think it should be though. The games are over 5 years old and nobody gets hurt when hosting or downloading the material. >:(
 
5 years is too early... but I'd say 10 years... OR another stipulation could be: the company released the source for people to edit. I think that games in which the source was released should be ok to host up.... I don't see the harm in it then. I mean, they released the source for people to modify their games..... at that point, the company must consider the game worthless in the terms of sales figures.

BUT in the case of Blizzard.... you can still play Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft 2 bnet..e.tc... online and they are sstill available for retail sale... so those games shouldn't be included.

†B†V† :hat
 
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