Like someone up there said, it's hard to give a frick about piracy these days. Every corporation that cries to no ends about it make lots of sales on their products enough to negate the supposed effects of a thousand or so copies. When they keep running away with anti-customer practices, it's even harder to care about the issue.

I'll just say the truth. To me, piracy is FINE. I've seen enough to justify it, between DRM and the companies' practices to cracking games you 'own' on DRM sites to preservation. As much as one would like to harp on how bad piracy is, there's some good effects that's thanks to them it appears that the positives outweigh the negatives.

As for abandonware, if it's a game like Captain Claw which I don't know of anywhere to get it, go ahead. If it's for sale however, I'd think about whether I want the version from the abandonware site or the version that would be usually sold on GOG with extras and out of the box compatibility with new systems, often the latter winning out. Simple.

Well, hmm. I'm not generally keen on the concept of an "abandoned" item being up for grabs for any and all to take.

Suppose I created some digital thingamabob that I sold for a while. And now I no longer sell it - my choice to not make the product available, and the reason doesn't really matter. Do I not still retain the rights to that product, especially in the event that I may resume selling it at a later date? Why would some random person have some unwritten "right" to it just because she didn't manage to buy it when it was available?

Further, just because something isn't for sale doesn't mean it has no value that relates in monetary terms. I mean, I have plenty of stuff around my house that isn't for sale, and yet that stuff has a value. Ditto digital goods. If you want the thing, then you should be willing to pay for it. And just because there is no current means to obtain it by paying for it does mean by default that it's yours for the taking.

I seem to recall when abandonware was set up many years before gog that you purchased games and dl at your pleasure,so as far as I'm concerned it's not piracy.Also it was fun trying to get them running.

Abandonware was always an excuse for pirate sites in their attempt to look legitimate. Over time, a handful of sites have tried to do abandonware somewhat responsibly, but they are few and far between. I have a little sympathy for the few sites which pay attention to GoG and Steam and react immediately to remove conflicts. But the vast majority of abandonware sites list games that clearly are not abandoned and thus they clearly have no right to distribute, legally or ethically. Most of them have the audacity to claim that rightsholders need to contact them to have the games removed...

Ppl claiming massive loss because of software copyright infringement live in denial that either game sucked or their business practice sucked or both. I don't do it for a multitude of reasons. (big backlog of legit games; income to buy the games I want, because of that not enough time to play anyway).

Oh... Piracy? I'm terrified by it and my condolences to everybody who encountered these guys :(

If you return it in the same condition as you took it. ;)

Of cause you do. The question is what a f*cking bustard will deny people to play a certain game?

Which are the safest sites to download abandonware from?

Also to the ethics debate, what if you're bought a game, corrupted the disc and are re-downloading it, still unethical?

I have bladerunner but have lost 1 disc. It'll never be re-published as the Devs lost some of it's data, it's a great game, should people really be begrudged the chance to play it?

Totally ethical in my mind. You already own it.

I think of it like buying a CD, the publishers would have you think that ripping a CD is illegal and wrong, however if you don't rip it you can't put it on your MP3 players and the like. Others will insist you should buy from iTunes, however getting something pre-MP3'd isn't so bad but then you don't have a physical copy in case something happens like... oh... losing internet because your house burns down, and losing all your copies... You could re-download it later maybe, but that could be months or years later.

Let's not forget a number of devs are also recommending you download the game and just play it vs getting it from some locations like G2A since buying said game could actually hurt them if the key was stolen, and involving chargebacks where everyone but the scammer could get hurt. (Although i think the scammers should have their accounts frozen and then get arrested for identity theft as they are using stolen credit cards...)

I agree with you. On a more generic level, though; not that it lasts long only, but the entire copyrights context (be it legal, or of any other form) thing is flawed, generally, through and through.

Another issue, is that many people (or worse, legal entities), confuse Copyrights with Patent. They are two entirely different things, within entirely different concepts and guidelines.

All said and done, i myself am no longer a pirate, since a long time now and i will never again set sail (after a philosophy-changing interaction with someone who owned something that i pirated before, he got to know and he gifted me his entire collection together with a soul-smashing lecture). But i judge and rate all arguments, for or against, regardless. Besides, within democracy, it is mandatory for EVERY opinion to be heard and RESPECTED, plus INSPECTED, thoroughly, properly and with arguments, of course!

We left our homes, and we left our mudders, to go on a pillaging spree...

Considering that even Steam and Uplay clients were reported for virus activity a number of times, there is not 'safe' site for downloading anyhting.

Though if it were me, I think that well known sites wich pop up in first lines of google search have lower risk, since if there were some virus activity, probably it will be revealed quickly.

Yes it is piracy, and illegal (in many parts of the world at least).

Whether you find it morally wrong, might be different. Of course the moral side can be a slippery slope, you can define many illegal things to be morally "not wrong" from some aspect, at least in some cases.

As long as we're talking about games (and really movies or tv series too) that are not otherwise available, I not only think piracy is not wrong, I'm downright thankful for it- it helps those titles survive where otherwise they would likely be lost in time, like tears in the rain. If we had piracy back in the 60s there would be no lost episodes of Doctor Who.

Oh, and while we're at it, though it's not about abandonware anymore but, if I'm to be honest I have to say I don't really mind people pirating games that are not sold DRM-free. It only helps prove how pointless DRM is. And I definately think it's better for people to pirate games then to buy from something like G2A. At least thieves, scammers and money launderers don't profit from it.