Now, from a practical standpoint, the website offers a lot of old games that are really useful, not just for fun but educationally too. But, from an ethical standpoint, even though the offered games are no longer being sold and cannot be bought from the copyright holder, they still fall under copyright. Abandonware is illegal. Here is the rationale posted on the site:
"Despite the illegal status of abandonware, we believe that we are offering a valuable service to the gaming community: classic game collectors have a chance to retrieve games that have otherwise been lost or rendered defective with the passage of time. As our Disclaimer printed on every page makes clear, we will gladly remove download links to any game that is either 1) still being sold by the publisher, or 2) at the request of the publishers themselves. Encouraging publishers to continue publishing great classics of yore has always been this site's foremost goals, and we will gladly link to the publisher's order or download site without hesitation should they make their products available again, whether commercially or as freeware.
That said, we are continually seeking permission from copyright holders to distribute their games on this site. If you are a copyright holder and would like to grant us permission (or request that your games be taken off-line, as the case may be), please contact us. "I thought it would be interesting to get some feedback from the class on what they think ethically...
2 comments:
Very interesting concept. I've never even heard of abondonware. This would be really interesting to study legally.
I've always thought that too... I've never had the chance, but there's definitely a legal/ethical conflict for sorts when it comes to management of rights for intellectual property that is no longer available. I think with the advent of such swiftly moving technology that this will become an even larger issue.
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