I believe that HereForTheBeer was not that opposed to abandonware. He did say "but in this particular case".
Perhaps the game will be available for sale again in 6 months. Certainly we can wait a little longer to ensure the last breath has gone by before we start looting the body.

On the other hand, ancient tombs were built with the sole purpose of holding the remains of a body in isolation in perpetuity. What do we do? We tunnel our way into it and sack them (in the view of the people who built it). Why? Because of their cultural value.
Even today we have things like archive.org to hold the vestiges of our digital culture.

If we were asking the creators, I believe that most (I would not dare say "all") would prefer (in order, from best to worse):
- Getting riches and fame from their project
- Getting money from the work they have done
... (much further down)
- Being remembered for their work
- Have their creation being forgotten

Bold. Is the downloader the one who decides when it is 'long after'? Removal from all sales outlets is not abandonment. In the specific case of this title, the rights holder is known. Campaign them for a re-release or to make it freely available. Until then, it's not up for grabs.

Who 'deserves' the royalties? The employees who were already paid a wage for their part in creating the game? The original rights holder who sold the copyright to someone else and has thus relinquished any claims to the product? Or the entity who bought - and currently owns - the copyright?

Is this a free pass to download any IP that Double Fine owns but did not create? How about the LucasArts titles that Double Fine remastered? LucasArts was the creative team, not Double Fine. Full Throttle Remastered, Day of the Tentacle Remastered, and Grim Fandango Remastered: you have Schafer's blessing to get them for free because the LucasArts team isn't getting any royalties from the sales.

gOg: be sure to update the store prices for those titles.

Gotta go - I'm off to search for all copyrights Chris Taylor owns, and take my 'share' of those that are at least four years old. Really hope he owns part of the Supreme Commander rights. Though I'm guessing he doesn't actually own the rights to any games, which then makes his "I would" statement moot.



Combine the Schafer and Taylor quotes and it sounds like we're suckers for paying a single cent for any slightly old game no longer owned by the original rights holder, whether or not it's available for sale. Sucks to be THQ Nordic!
That sounds right to me. However, in so many cases we are NOT asking the creators. There's just the arbitrary decision that a game is abandoned.

Excellent response.

Thanks.

To clarify, I'm not against older games that haven't been available for purchase for a long time (to be determined) being placed into a public domain-esque status. One problem I see, however, is that there are no good industry guidelines to determine how and when this happens. All reasonable efforts should be made to determine and contact the rights holder(s) to obtain permission for free distribution or at least find out their plans for the title. And if that never happens, then maybe transfer to the public domain becomes automatic after a set period of time that is determined NOT by Joe Blow hitting up a torrent site.

In the case of this game, some are suggesting the OP skip all that - even though we know who owns the rights - and just take it, simply because it's not currently offered in stores. I don't feel that is the right thing to do. At the least, those wishing to obtain the game should start a conversation with the rights holder to help determine the status of the title.