Abandonware

Abandonware refers to computer software that is no longer current. While the term has been applied largely to older games, other classes of software are sometimes described as such also. Definitions of "abandoned" vary; generally, it is used to refer to software that (1) is no longer available for legitimate purchase and/or (2) is at least a certain number of years old.

The term has no legal meaning, and much abandonware is not in the public domain, and so cannot be legally copied or distributed without the permission of the owner. Copyrights in the U.S. do not expire until 70 years after the death of the copyright owner, or if the copyright is held by a company (as is often the case with software), 95 years after first publication.

Software companies (like companies in many other industries) change their names, go bankrupt, merge with other companies or cease to be for a variety of reasons. When this happens, the rights of the products are usually transferred to some other company, who may or may not sell or support the software.

The term abandonware is used to make copying software appear legitimate, in the case where the software is still under copyright protection. Some companies actively defend their old copyright, such as WordPerfect and LucasArts. Some companies have released their old work into the public domain. Most companies have not made an active statement either way.

History

People have distributed old software since shortly after the dawn of personal computing, but the activity remained low-key until the advent of the Internet. While trading old games has had many names and forms, the actual term "abandonware" was coined by Peter Ringering in late 1996. Ringering found a few classic game websites similar to his own, contacted their webmasters, and formed the original "Abandonware Ring" in February 1997. The original Ring was little more than links to each other's websites, with one site indexing them all to provide a rudimentary search facility.

In October of 1997, the Interactive Digital Software Association sent cease and desist letters to all sites on the Abandonware Ring, which resulted in most of them shutting down. This had the unintended effect of spurring others to create their own abandonware sites and organizations, many more than the original Ring. Some of the early abandonware sites formed after the demise of the original ring include Classic Trash and Home of the Underdogs.

Classes of abandonware

The term abandonware is broad, and encompasses many different types of old software.

• Commercial software unsupported but still owned by a viable company can be easy or hard for researchers to locate. The availability of the software depends on the company's attitude towards the old software (and in many cases, the company which owns the rights to the software may in fact not be the same company with which it originated and may even not remember they own it).
  • Some companies, like Borland, make some of their software available online, in a form of freeware.
  • Other companies do not make old versions available for free use and do not permit people to copy the software.

• Commercial software apparently owned by a company that is no longer in business can also be difficult to locate, but often no entity defends the copyright if this software is put onto abandonware web sites. (An example of this is Digital Research's original PL/I compiler for MS-DOS.) However, the rights to the software may have been bought by another company or have reverted to the original authors, who could bring copyright lawsuits against those copying the software without permission.

• Old shareware whose author still makes it available can be found online. Finding historical versions, however, can be difficult since most shareware archives delete old versions when new versions came out. Authors may or may not make older releases available.
  • Some websites attempt to collect and offer for download old versions of shareware, freeware, and (in some cases) commercial applications. In some cases these sites have been forced to take down older versions of software, particularly if the company producing that software is still maintaining it (new versions), or if the new software features Digital Rights Management that the previous version did not (in this case, having an old version of a program can be a way to defeat DRM.)

• Old shareware that was once released, but the author is no longer maintaining or supporting it. Again, finding historical versions is possible in some cases, but very difficult.

• Open source and freeware programs can be abandoned. In some cases, the source code is still available or was part of the release, which can be an interesting historical artifact. An interesting case of abandonware is PC-LISP, which can still be found online, which implements the Franz Lisp dialect. The MS-DOS based PC-LISP still runs well in emulators and on Windows.

The law

There is no recognition of a legal term abandonware in copyright law. There is a long held concept of abandonment in trademark law, but it is a direct result of the infinite term of trademark protection. Currently, a copyright can be released into the public domain if the owner clearly does so in writing; however this formal process is not considered abandoning, but rather releasing. Those who do not own a copyright cannot merely claim the copyright abandoned and start using it without permission of the copyright holder, who would then have a legal remedy.

Hosting and distributing copyrighted software without permission is illegal. Copyright holders, sometimes through the Entertainment Software Association, send cease and desist letters, and some sites have shut down or removed software as a result. However, according to Wired magazine, most of the association's efforts are spent on new games, due to those titles having the highest value.

Companies do sometimes voluntarily relinquish copyright on software, putting it into the public domain, or re-license it as free software or freeware. id Software is an early proponent of a similar practice, releasing the source code for the game engine (but not the actual game content, such as levels or textures) of some older titles under a free software license. Other examples include Amstrad, who support emulation and free distribution of CPC and ZX Spectrum hardware ROMs and software, and Revolution Software, which released their game Beneath a Steel Sky as freeware and gave the engine's source code to the authors of ScummVM to add support for the game. Transfer of public domain or free software is perfectly legal, distinguishing it from copyrighted abandonware. See list of commercial games released as freeware.

There are active groups that try to lobby companies to release their software as legal abandonware. These efforts have met with mixed results. One example is the huge library of educational titles released by MECC. MECC was sold to Brøderbund, who was sold to The Learning Company (TLC); when TLC was contacted about releasing classic MECC titles as freeware, it was determined that the documentation proving that TLC owned the rights to these titles could not be located, and therefore the rights for these titles are "in limbo" and may never be able to be legally released.

Enforcement of copyright

Old copyrights are sometimes not defended. This can be due to intentional non-enforcement by their owners due to the software's age or obsolescence, but sometimes because the corporate copyright holder went out of business without explicitly transferring ownership, leaving no one aware of their right to defend the copyright. Nevertheless, some companies (such as LucasArts) vigorously defend their rights to old software.

Even if the copyright is not defended, copying of this software is still unlawful in most jurisdictions when 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. Additionally, proponents argue that distributing software for whom there is nobody to defend the copyright is acceptable. Companies that have gone out of business without transferring their copyrights are an example of this; many manufacturers and software companies that developed for older systems are long since out of business and precise documentation of the copyrights may not even be readily available.

Arguments

Proponents of abandonware argue that it is more ethical to make copies of such software than new software that still sells. Some who are ignorant of copyright law have incorrectly taken this to mean that abandonware is legal to distribute, although no software written since 1964 is old enough for its copyrights to have expired. Even in cases where the original company no longer exists, the rights usually still belong to someone else, though no one may know who actually owns the rights, including the owners themselves.

Abandonware advocates also frequently cite historical preservation as a reason for trading abandoned software. Older computer media is fragile and very prone to rapid deterioration, and therefore it is necessary to copy these materials to a more modern and stable medium and generate as many copies as possible to ensure the software will not disappear.

Users of still-functional older computer systems argue that they need abandonware because even if a title is re-released by its copyright holder, the new version most likely will be for a modern PC computer, while their older system may be an old PC or not even a PC at all. Additionally, re-released software is most likely not available in the medium used by old computer systems (5.25" diskette, cartridge, cassette tape, etc.) and therefore there is no way to legally purchase compatible software for old computers.

Those who oppose these practices argue that distributing this software can still deny the copyright holder potential sales, in the form of re-released titles, official emulation systems, and so on. Likewise, if people can acquire an old version of a program for free, they may be less likely to purchase a newer version for a price if the old version will meet their needs.

At least one person on Wiki has tried to use point 2 of the Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works to claim Abandonware is legal. However if you read the beginning of the document you realize this is regarding copy protection methods and has nothing to do with copyright.

Abandonware sites

Several sites on the Internet archive abandonware for download, including old versions of applications which are difficult or impossible to find in any other way. Much of this software fits the definition of "software that is no longer current, but is still of interest", but the line between true abandonware and simple software piracy or "warez" is blurry, and calling a site abandonware has been frequently used as a cover for distributing pirated current software. Many abandonware sites have such software available, either intentionally or unknowingly.

The Internet Archive has created an archive of what it describes as "vintage software", as a way to preserve them for archival. The project advocated for an exemption from the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act to permit them to bypass copy protections, which was approved in 2003 for a period of 3 years.. The exemption was renewed in 2006, and is currently due to expire on 2009-10-27. The Archive does not offer this software for download, as the exemption is solely "for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive".

See also

• Freeware
• Glossary of legal terms in technology
• List of freeware games
• List of commercial games released as freeware
• Orphaned technology

External links

• "Abandonwarez: the pros outweigh the cons", an opinion piece on the web site Adventure Classic Gaming.
• Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On Abandonware, Marc Saltzman on GameSpot