I bought a heck of a lot of games now abandoned when they were new, so I have no moral qualms about downloading those titles and feel no moral obligation to re-purchase them (with the added caveat that I'd probably re-purchase them anyway for the convenience and extras).

Well... maybe. Personally, I do all my videogame shopping in the "pre-2005" aisle :P

I think you have to remember that the term 'abandonware' predates GOG, HD-remakes and console classics being remade for handhelds (mostly), at that time it really did seem like the old classics were unloved and being forgotten about, now not so much and the term has lost a lot of its 'preserving gaming history for future generations' good guy shine

The better question is whether or not it's orphanware. Abandonware is legally dubious, but orphanware is for all intents and purposes legal as there's nobody left with legal standing to defend it.

Some people just don't care and don't like people bringing it up for the 10,000th time for whatever reason. ;)

(In your case why bring up that abandonware is illegal if we already know it? It can't be because you're anti-piracy because you admitted to being a sort of pirate yourself.)
How can they use that argument to pirate MW3 when it is still sold in stores firsthand? :\
Age isn't an issue with abandonware...any game can be "abandonware" if it's no longer sold in any way shape or form by the developer and/or publisher(and possibly also if the used copies are no longer sold as well.).

Also I hate when people(on either side) claim the old most/all pirates will never buy games they pirate so that makes them even more bad/evil/etc. Not all pirates do buy what they pirate when reasonably priced(i.e. not eBay copies for 50+ dollars) copies become available but a good number do.

If it's not being (legally) manufactured & sold then downloading it doesn't make it un-legal.

(just like how there were distros of FSO that included the game files for Freespace 1 & 2 but Interplay really couldn't do shit about it till GOG because it was software that WAS abandoned.)

that's the primary reason (IMO: no facts to back that up, just logic) why publishers sign on to GOG. selling these games on here probably doesn't make most publishers a damned dime in the long run after GOG takes their cut from the sales (esp in DRM free format where the second they come out on here they are popped up on torrent sites by dick heads). it does however give them solid steel legal defense that their products are NOT abandonware.

Velvet said he owns the LSL collection, that kinda implies that he would buy it if it were available but since it's not (despite the other 6 being so): fuck 'em till they make it available and then they will get their money .... just like how pretty much everyone who is a fan of FSO rabidly supports legit purchases of the games on GOG.

Haha, you took the words right out of my mouth.
No it's meant to convey additional meaning beyond the term "pirating it" which provides less meaning, overall.

the funny thing is that if you leave your car on the side of the for more than a week or so (sometimes just a few days or even hours depending on where you park) it is perfectly legal for someone to come by with a tow truck and MAKE you pay them before they will give you your car back.

While what you say is true it doesn't lessen the shittiness of the original metaphor.

no, no! you miss understand: I'm with you guys.

he was trying to be a sarcastic prick, I pointed out that even the logic of his metaphor is bad because there ARE situations were your car can legally be "acquired" by someone else simply because you didn't keep current on it.

Very true. I get pretty annoyed when people put downloading Abandonware on the same line as downloading brand new games - for obvious reasons.

Besides that, Abandonware has another great use for me. I own thousands of games on floppy and CD and I constantly use Abandonware sites to save me a lot of trouble - maybe some here don't realise, but copy protection back in the day could be really annoying as well, requiring you to check manuals or charts and for that alone, Abandonware sites are great, getting you access to the originally cracked releases.

There's a million and one reasons abandonware sites are actually overall good for gaming and culture, but I've mentioned them all before I'm not going to rehash them here. However, you make a good point with which I agree (and have made myself in one manner or another on multiple occasions, among others).

Abandonia won't send me the registration email :(

Yeah, you need to donate $1337 before they take you seriously. It's a secret handshake of sorts.