ethics of potential abandonware

**raidzero** · #1 (**permalink**) 07-25-2009, 10:14 AM

If a company has disappeared and their website vanished and they don't answer their phone would it be acceptable to include a full version of their product in a ROM/cab otherwise release to the community if the trial of the software is no longer available? This all just hypothetical... thanks for any ideas!

ksg · #2 (**permalink**) 07-25-2009, 12:16 PM

In my opinion it would be OK. If no one is accepting money for it any longer and no one claims copyright then it is essentially abandoned and freeware.

There are plenty of once commercial products from the 70's-90's which have gone that route. There are whole websites dedicated to them. For more information on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware

Disclaimer: These are my own ideas on the subject. I don't speak for PPCGeeks.com, Wideawake or the staff.

**Genjinaro** · #3 (**permalink**) 07-25-2009, 12:22 PM

WeatherPanel is a good example of Shareware turned Abandonware. It lives only through the people tweaking/keeping it.

**raidzero** · #4 (**permalink**) 07-25-2009, 01:34 PM

may be a touchy subject but the software I am thinking of is Bluefire Mobile VPN, contains all that stuff that isnt supposed to leave the US having to do with cryptography, etc...

k_semler · #5 (**permalink**) 07-25-2009, 01:58 PM

Legally, there is no such thing as abandonware. Copywrite exists in the United States for a period of 75 years from the date of creation by the corporation, or the lifetime of the author plus 50 years. Since the "electronics revolution" only happened in 1978, there are no "abandoned software" which are legal to re-distribute without the copyright holder's permission. To do otherwise is copyright infringement, and subject to civil and criminal penalties.

Personally, I consider the mantra of "no harm no foul". My personal "method" for distribution of abandoned titles is after 2 years of no support of whatever product you wish to distribute, or 2 generations of newer software availability. I have no problems distributing old software no longer supported by the author, or available for purchase from an authorised retailer. Between the years of 2001-2003, I used to run an abandonware site specialising in MS products. I had everything available from MS DOS 1.0, to Windows 95 OSR 2.5, all office versions up to version 1997, and every biuld of OS/2 released to the market. Once Win7 goes retail on 22 Oct 2009, (it already reached RTM), I will have no problems informing people on where to get WinXP, and how to crack WPA and WGA.

**No1ustad** · #6 (**permalink**) 07-25-2009, 06:47 PM

it's a good topic, and props to k_semler for the informative post, but i think it's too close to warez for comfort and although I agree with ya raidzero and would love to have the site expand in a way to include such software, i'm not sure it'd be beneficial to the site to allow for it. I would be interested to hear what the mods think tho!