For the most part, yes.

But honestly, most companies won't care. They're not making profit off it anymore. It's like downloading ROMs.

Yup. It's not legal. But on the moral side - websites like Abandonia help preserving the works of art that games of course are :P

Also, for the game maker it doesn't make difference if you buy used copy on ebay or download the game.

Dune game are really abandoned. They were made based on license, that expired and it's highly unlikely that anyone will start selling it again.

And just like Fuzzyfireball said - it's like downloading ROMs. It's not legal, but it's the only way to play these games now.

Much appreciated. I don't mind the moral issue, mine was more centered around the fact that the company my Dad works for pays for the internet at the house and they have a very strict policy of not downloading pirated/illegal downloading (at the risk of possible job loss) so I was unsure how abadonware was viewed within this context.

Glad I still have a physical copy of Dune 2000 but I found some other games on Abadonia that I certainly would like to try, guess I'll have to check out EBay or some other such places.

Thanks for the reply and +1 to both kee and fuzzy.

For what it's worth, you can still find fairly reasonably priced original copies of Dune 1, Dune 2, Dune 2000 and Emperor Battle for Dune on Amazon and eBay. That is the legal alternative, although as keeveek says, at the end of the day, it doesn't affect the developer either way if you pirate it or buy it second-hand.

Edit: Never mind, you've just ninja'd me.

:( sorry!

Loved these games shame they are in license hell.

We really need to rework those licensing laws...

Preferably with a sledgehammer?

No ;-P, writing laws is really, really intricate process. It is always a balance between two valid positions. Hasty laws are always bad laws.

But in the current licensing legislation is just to old to work in the digital age. And it shows.