Abandonware ? Opinions wanted.

[fraggle]

Hi all.

About 10-12 years ago, when people were "going PC" en-masse, I made a point of watching the local small ads for Amiga related stuff, and buying it up, as far as finances allowed. I picked up some really good stuff this way, including all the kit from a local colleges Media Dept. (FOR FREE !, and this included an A4000 !)

Anyway, amongst this stuff were a bunch of Pirate CDs. (Yes, I know this killed the Amiga) These CDs were obviously produced by "professional" pirates, and contain just about every Amiga game produced until then, plus other serious software.

I have kept these CDs to myself, and I have never made these CDs, or anything on them available, or tried in any way to publish/make money from them.

I once mentioned the CDs on a well known Amiga chat channel, and I was nearly chased out of town by people shouting about copyright, and how piracy finished off the Amiga. I do not, in any way, dispute the copyright issues,or the historical effects of CDs like this, but it seems to me that this is now a null point when the PC "community" seems to treat Amiga software as if it were in the Public Domain, and you can buy CDs full of Amiga games for use with emulators, at any Computer Fair.

I'm probably going to get some flack, (again! LOL) but I would value your opinions on what these CDs now represent. I.E. should they be burned, or are they now a valuable resource ?

fraggle.

 

[Harrison]

Re: Abandonware ? Opinions wanted.

In regard to the sale of such items on AmiBay, they are a no go area as we would rather avoid any legal issues full stop so anything that can be questioned is out of bounds to try and sell here.

But in regard to your question about these discs being a valuable resource. I have to say yes, they most definitely are. A lot of original Amiga software is now quickly becoming lost to time as people just throw it away to make room. So the contents of any such collection is a valuable resource now and into the future as a way to reference lost software.

In running classicamiga.com I often have to turn to such collections in order to gather the details needed for our software databases. Without such collections this would now be near to impossible. Equally having access to the software in this way also allows relatively easy creation of software screenshots.

 

[Zetr0]

Re: Abandonware ? Opinions wanted.

I second Harrison's post.

Here here sir!

 

[fraggle]

Re: Abandonware ? Opinions wanted.

Is that it ? Only 2 people got opinions ? LOL.

Ah well, I suppose THAT tells me something !

Thanks guys.

 

[Merlin]

Re: Abandonware ? Opinions wanted.

@ Fraggle

That's the problem with pirate warez, it's so entrenched in the computer communities it's almost seen as acceptable and a victimless crime; obviously there are victims in relation to piracy and the whole "Robin Hood" credo that is behind the pirate warez movement doesn't help.

To be frank, we agonised over this when we first set up the site. Zetr0 and I spent ages debating what could be sold as abandonware and what couldn't.

Ultimately, we decided to put the onus on the seller to prove that the software was abandonware by some form of proof from the original author stating as such.

The dilemma is that some people perceive that just because a game is no longer produced for a particular platform and that the cracked version is in the TOSEC sets, it is acceptable to offer it on certain auction sites. Unfortunately, this is not the case, as copyright is still held by someone somewhere.

This is the reason we were extremely specific as to what was acceptable from a software point of view on our site and we hope that the members understand the reasons behind this.