Please refrain from posting your abandonware politics every chance you get.

Abandonware is NOT illegal and it is ethically sound.

You're right that it doesn't work that way, but for all the wrong reasons.

"deciding to sell abandonware that has always been free"

Well this is where it all goes wrong. First, abandonware isn't a legal term; it refers to software which is still in copyright and hasn't been made free but for which new licences are no longer being sold (i.e. the game is out of print). Abandonware is still copyright infringement and in the eyes of the law, no different from copyright infringement of say Mass Effect 3. You are however much less likely to be prosecuted for the abandonware simply because the copyright holder probably doesn't care.

Something ceases to be abandonware when the copyright holder re-releases it in some way (through GOG, Steam, one of those budget labels that does physical copies etc.). It's not changeing "copyright/distribution category" because abandonware was never an official status, it's just a colloquial term that distinguishes between software available for purchase and software not available for purchase.

Thus, if GOG starts selling a game again, downloading it becomes plain old normal piracy, no different from downloading Mass Effect 3.

EDIT: Also, analogy fail. Band B wrote the song, of course band B owns it.

It is most definitely illegal. There are still people/companies who have the rights to these games, and just because they are no longer sold does not mean that you are allowed to just download the games for free. Ethically sound? Well, I'm not going into that debate.

I agree that it's ethically sound, but in the eyes of the law it's the same as any other copyright infringement.

It is not illegal. At worst it violates copyright law. Also, the derision people on here use the term with is extremely insulting. Legal =/= Ethical, illegal =/= unethical.

You're missing the point. This thread isn't about the legality or morality of abandonware, it's about the OP not even being able to grasp what abandonware means.

Uhm... If you're violating a law, you're doing something illegal. Just look up the meaning of "illegal" http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/illegal

Who said that abandonware is unethical?

No, anjohl is right there. Copyright violation is not a criminal act, you have to be sued by the copyright holder for there to be any legal action.

Maybe there's a subtlety in the english meaning of "illegal" that I don't see... As far as I understood, you're doing something illegal if it is against the law. Killing someone is illegal and a crime. Ignoring the traffic lights is illegal as well, but just a minor infraction (or offense).

A describing synonym for "illegal" could be "not allowed by law". At least that's what illegal means to me...

If you just want the English version it is a great offer. But the Steam version also supplies language versions in German, French, Italian and Spanish. Just FYI.

I wish people would quit saying that I think GOG is ripping me off or that I am against GOG's pricing. If you read my initial post about this, then you would have read that I think GOG is justified in charging for software, since the sites that provide these for free don't make them XP or Vista compatible like GOG does.

All I asked was why were the recent software aquisiitons priced more than GOG has charged for the ton of software they've made available up until this point.

And the word 'inflation' was also not a slap on GOG. Inflation simply means a rise in price. Jeeeze!

In the case of abandonware, your analogy is flawed. It's more like Atari has a car that they abandoned in their basement for 10 years; Just because Atari let the car rot in the garage and doesn't use it or sell it for the time being, doesn't mean anyone can go to the basement and take it.

And if you feel you have the right to take it, please show us an explicit, written permission from Atari that says that instead of just thinking, "Well, they've abandoned their car for years, I'm sure they don't mind if I take it for a ride!"

From the legal point abandonware IS piracy. Laws don't know abandonware. What laws do know, is downloading and using software without permission. That's a copyright infringement.

Well... The problem is: They never gave their software away. If they do so, it is freeware.

They don't do this. They don't say "The commercial life of our product is over. Feel free to grab it." The only thing they say is "The commercial life is over, so it would be kind of stupid to waste money on new boxed copies, because no one will put them on their shelf, because shelfspace in stores is limited."

Yes, there's digital distribution now. But we're not talking about Call of Duty here. Call of Duty is on Steam from it's day of release and it will be available "forever". Why should they remove it from Steam? No, we're talkig about games that have been released before digital distribution became popular. Right, publishers could offer all their old games digital. But they don't. I think they don't see enough profit to waste their time on all the legal stuff.

No, it's not the same thing. You don't give your car to someone. The "same thing" (Not even remotely the same, because your car is gone if someone takes it. But forget about that for the moment.) would be if you leave your car on the street for a couple of month and suddenly it is gone. Someone took it, because he decided you don't need it anymore. Would you report it stolen? I would! But that's the difference between stealing and copyright infringement... The car is gone forever. I can't decide to sell it later, because I don't have it anymore. Software isn't gone, no matter how many copies were made. But that's a different topic.

However... If you get caught with a stolen car, you can't save your ass by talking about "abandoncars". The same goes for software. Abandonware is just "stolen" (copied without permission) software. Publishers just don't enforce their rights, because they haven't lost any imaginary sales, when you're copying something they don't sell anymore. But this doesn't make abandonware legal.

And to relate everything to your first post: Yes, all the games you find on GOG are available for free on other sites. But that's piracy. And no, GOG doesn't take money for letting you pirate a game that's made compatible to new computers ;) GOG has signed contracts with the right holders of the games. They're not abandoncar dealers, they're official car dealers.

ps. I don't deny that it is ethically okay to download a game that is not available for purchase. But games on GOG are available for purchase. So dowloading abandonware that is available on GOG (we already pointed out the contradiction) is piracy.

Inflation means the rise of all prices (or the value of money going down, which amounts to the same thing) which is not happening on GOG.