I spent alot of time in the abandonware community when i was younger, even ran a couple of sites for awhile before abandoning them  .
Abandonware is illegal (they become freeware if their copyright holders give permission for free distribution).
Abandonware is basically games which have been abandoned by their copyright holders who no longer sell or support the games (and typically over 5 years old).
These days alot of publishers sell old games as budget ranges, so they are regarded as oldware and are normally removed from abandonware sites.
Although abandonware is illegal, few companies take direct legal action against the abandonware scene as they aren't taking any profit away from the companies. So there is a sort of a stand off between the scene and the gaming authorities, such as IDSA/ESA/SPA/SIIA (organisations which protect member companies software) or whatever they are calliing themselves these days. Every so often they will send a cease and desist order to the websites demanding that the games they protect are removed.Nearly all abandonware sites comply with these orders and simply remove the download(not that they make it easy for the authorities), EXAMPLE.
Looking about at the moment, it's pretty disapointing that the abandonware scene has declined so far in the last few years. Still a couple of the old names are still floating around such as Mr Creo at The Good Old Days and Bunny & the guys at Abandoned places .
I wonder how many of the old names are still lurking, it seems like the scene could do with some of the old guys returning in force. |
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