Legal question regarding games...
 

Hello all, I am new to this board, and I am well aware of your rules, and I will abide by them. But I do have a question that I hope doesn't get misconstrued as a potencial "ban". I have been researching games for college (to make a compilation CD for the class). I have noticed that some games are completely available for free. They are considered abandonware. So my question is, so I don't get in trouble, how long does it take for a game to reach Public Domain status?

Note: I absolutely do not want to pirate games and take away from the makers, I am simply talking about the games that have been dropped by their makers and are issued as freeware and abandonware.

its more a point of no finacial backing,or no system to run it.

Depends upon the publisher/author allowing the game to become 'public domain'.

Some let their older games be downloaded 'free' for personal use but still retain the copyright, some won't release any games for free. Best contact the publisher/author of the game first if possible to determine it's 'abandonware' status!

The grey area is when a publisher/author no longer exists, if no one owns the copyright is it then 'free' or maybe it reverts to the administrators/next of kin?

Actually i read an article on this a few weeks ago, "Abandonware" doesnt technically exist the copyrights are still held and although arent actually chased up anymore it is a very grey area as you are still technically stealing...

Abandonwre generally (or at least PROPER abandoware) is when a software company decides there is no feasible way of making a single penny more off of the existing software, and have no plans to release an updated version or continue the series.

For example, the old Dizzy games, with the little egg (god I loved that little guy!). They don't plan to make a modernised Dizzy game, or a new one to run on modern systems (though they should) and are not going to be stocking the title for sale anywhere, so they basically say "If you want it, just take it. We know we can't charge for it, but if you want it as a freebie......."

It does take give or take 10 years for titles to reach this status though. Some titles you might find on Abandonware status are:

The Dizzy collection (Magicland Dizzy was always MY favourite!)
Beavis and Butthead - Virtual Stupidity
You only live twice
Battlechess (the original)
Day of the Tentacle (this was fantastic! First full game I bought for myself!)
Manic Mansion
King's Quest
Aliens Legacy
Yoda Stories
Sam and Max
Monty Python's Flying Circus

I was just curious because I have run across some of the old Quest for Glory, and King's Quest games that many websites consider abandonware, but I wasn't sure the legality of it. So basically it is when the company decides not to support the game, that is when it becomes abandonware, correct?

Abandonware is legal yes.

Basically as said, when its not feasible to make any money from them and arent a possible profit maker, they let people enjoy it for free.

Even cinemaware, one of the best amiga game makers (imho) have redone some old classics for PC's, like Wings and It came from the dessert. Go have a look, (especially wings, im not biased honestly, its great btw)

Abandonware is rather illegal because it rather means software that has NOT been explicitly released for free download, instead someone put it online and noone cares about it because A) the original copyright holder (or someone who acquired the copyright from it) doesn't exist anymorer or B) it does exist but it does not know or does not care about its software being, well, technically pirated. (If abandonware consisted of titles made free by their copyright holders then abandonware sites would only be mirrors; there's no point in that!)

The reason for not making the software available for free may be either laziness or, perhaps, the original copyright belonged to not only one person or company but many of them (e.g. both the developer and the publisher); then asking for the legal permission from all copyright holders is just too much of a hassle. If the copyright holder still exists and it's not too lazy and it's kind of courteous, it takes the time to publish its own software for free and, you bet, you will definitely know about it because it's rare that a copyright holder does this. :( (Mind you, this can also be thought of as advertising, e.g. in the case of GTA and GTA 2 being released for free when GTA 3 was current.)

As for how long the copyright is held, I don't know the exact number but it surely is similar to other forms of intellectual property: several decades. Knowing that, today, software gets obsolete within years, if not months, this is stupid. But that's money, politics, lobbying and taking into account what publishers (the guys who sell the software but add nothing significant to its value; except for, perhaps, user support) want instead of what the developers (the poor people who do the actual implementation and get pretty much no money for it) want so it's way above us, everyday users, too!

Again it all depends on the company, as you well said joe, rockstar have released a few of their tittles for free, other companies have release the sourcode for games, like id with quake 1 and 2 yet they still sell the games, so loads of weird cases really.

Afaik there a some 3D Reamls games for free, too. Which games are free you can check at http://www.3drealms.com and download them there.

Well, I thank you all. I wasn't quite sure on the legality of it, and had noticed some of the abandonware site that were up offering old games. I figured that someone here would know the laws and would be capable of answering me, which you were, so again I thank you....