If GOG include all of the good free games in its library wouldn't be nice? For example
Warcraft 1 and 2, Duke Nukem 1 and 2, TES: Arena and Daggerfall?

It can't be done because of the people or company still holding some kind of right that the game can't be distrubuted from anywhere? If not why? It would be great to have all collection in one place, in GOG.

I would be kind of nice, yes. Bandwidth isn't free, though, and it's not in gog's interest to turn into a file hosting site for free games.

We get freebies from gog on various occasions, so this is meant to be a bonus not a rule. It would be kind of weird that, if they'd opt for a big list of free games, they'd also require you to open an account. People would simply use google and find a site that's not as closed and would allow you to download freeware from the start.

And technically, abandonware is not legal to distribute. The sites that can afford to do so fly under the radar because they are mostly fan sites and would realistically cost a load to try to sue into submission, and that for a game that the suing rights owner isn't even selling anymore. Hence the name abandonware.

To host free games for free, site should also be non-profit.
In other case developers of these free games could ask for $.

warcraft 2 is free?; wow I have never used my codes from battle net edition. instead of looking for cd i may just dl it now.

Two things (please excuse me if I'm being pedantic):

Abandonware doesn't mean free to distribute. It refers to software of which new copies aren't being legally sold (or given away) anymore. If GOG were to get permission and then start selling these legally then they wouldn't be abandonware anmore. (I might be mistaken but Lure of the Temptress could be an example of this).

Freeware isn't necessarily free to distribute either. "Freeware" refers to software that can be legally obtained at no cost to the recipient; it specifically does not mean that you have permission to distribute copies yourself, unless it happens to come with a redistribution licence as well (in which case it's "Shareware").

Although "shareware" usually means "you are free to share a crippled version, and can pay for the full functionality".

nearly perfect, but one thing :)

There is nothing like Abandonware, this is just a word that came up to justify to offer games that are not sold anymore. But to be not sold anymore does not make it legit to be offered for free.
As long there is a copyright on a game (and this is not void when it is not sold anymore), no one is allowed to offer it for download (or even worse to sell it without permission of the copyright holder).

But one thing - as you can abandon your property (by throwing it away or in case of real estates by not using it while someone else is, for a certain amount of time, who claims it's his real estate - at least in Poland that's how it works), there is no reason not to let copyright owners to abandon their IP property.

I'm not saying that this is something based on law, but many thing that law now provides, at the begining were only customs.

I'd say that it's most important for a cultural inheritance that in next decade there should be introduced the obligation for the copyright holders to provide their goods for sale, and in case of failure to do so, everyone is entitled to download a copy from the net. So there should be no problem for anyone to get old books/music/games/movies.

In Germany a copyright is void after 75 years, and it does not matter it the copyrighted material is on sale or not.

In some cases, the copyright holder is giving out the "abandoned" games for free, which is legit but only with the permission of the copyright holder.

Copyrights are void after at least 50 years of publication or the death of author. This period varies in certain countries.
And yes, there is no abandonware. Unless the copyright holders relinquish their copyrights and release their products to public domain.

this would be nice, but hard to do. The Law must be worldwide (the countries don't even manage it to set up worldwide pollution laws), so I think this will never happen at all :)

At the very moment, there is no abandonware and it is not legal to distribute games for free without the permission of the copyright holder :)

Nope. You can abandon only movable objects, not rights.

IP is not an object nor item, it's right.

You cannot abandon your right to work, to privacy just because you don't use that right. You have to make a direct statement "I will not use my IP rights for this item anymore, you are free to copy it" to do "abandon"

Presumption that somebody has abandoned his IP , because he's not selling it anymore is unacceptable.

Can I distribute your old emails from your email box , because you don't use it anymore?

And your emails. And your poem written to that hot chick from senior class.

Just EU and USA.

And this cocerns only old and not used IP, so it's not cotroversial. But i's good for the consumers and for the culture.