Is it actually legal to download proprietary programs available from "abandonware" websites such as http://www.abandonia.com?
Furthermore, If decide to decompile a program obtained from such a website, with a tool such as Boomerang, would I be able to make my own modifications and distribute it under a free/Open Source license?
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308answers:
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A:
If the copyright has actually expired, the software is legally in the public domain. You can't (as far as I know) just slap your own license on a public-domain work, but if you make a modification, you can copyright (and then license) the resulting modified work as your own.
The hardest part, then, is determining the legal status of the software. This will actually differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction; you only need to worry about the jurisdiction you are actually in.
Also, many of the older games don't have EULA's, or have very simple ones. It's probably not against the terms of the license to decompile the code. Once you've gotten that far, you can edit the program all you like as long as you don't distribute the modified code. At the very least, you can learn a lot about old games this way. Then, if your modifications are significant enough, you can legally claim to have made a new work and copyright it yourself. This is tricky, and you should definitely consult legal counsel before commercially distributing these - but if the game is abandoned in the first place, chances are very small that you will be called on any small discrepancies by the copyright holder.
sep332
2008-12-15 19:24:59
Licence, or copyright? Licences don't usually "expire" and you probably can't get a legitimate licence to abandonware (because it's abandoned so there's no one to ask).You'll probably have to wait 50+ years for the copyright to expire...
Paul
2008-12-15 19:26:42
good catch, edited
sep332
2008-12-15 19:28:30
There wasn't any software before 1940, so no software copyrights have expired in the US. Any software in the public domain is there because the copyright holder put it there.
David Thornley
2008-12-15 20:01:27
@David: So do it somewhere else. Not every country has such long copyright terms.
sep332
2008-12-15 20:18:32
"Then, if you make enough modifications to significantly add to the work, you can legally claim to have made a new work and copyright it yourself." - but that just means you have am additional copyright to your modified copy - the original copyright holder still has the rights they always had
Paul
2008-12-15 20:32:16
I believe most developed countries have minimum copyrights of 50 years or more (Berne convention), so software written after 1958 is mostly covered. In addition, the initial poster didn't specify country, and that usually means US.
David Thornley
2008-12-15 20:32:33
Actually it's UK so 70 years
Tarski
2008-12-15 21:15:27
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A:
1) No, it's not legal unless the copyright holder says you can. They're probably not available to ask or not interested in giving you permission, though.
2) Given the answer to 1), then no, it's not legal to make a "derivative work" and pass it on, again unless you have the permission of the copyright holder.
That's what copyright means - the right to control who can copy the work to which you have rights.
Whether in most cases of abandonware the copyright holder has any interest in stopping you doing either of these things is a different matter.
Paul
2008-12-15 19:30:42
In America you get a copyright, and when you officially copyright something it expires in 25 years and can only be renewed once. Thus, after 25-50 years something is completely public domain.
The Wicked Flea
2008-12-15 19:38:44
Nope; it's much longer than that. Your information is either inaccurate or way out of date. I think it's now life + 70 years, or 95 years for corporate works, but I could be wrong.
David Thornley
2008-12-15 19:48:14
The Mickey Mouse clause means that whenever Mickey Mouse is about to become public domain, the period of copyright will be extended. You can't see it -- but it exists and has worked every time so far. MM was created circa 1929.
Jonathan Leffler
2008-12-15 22:02:22
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A:
Legally, no you cannot. I don' think any copyrighted software has been around long enough for the copyright to expire. Advocates have been asking Congress for an "abandon software clause" for years, but congress seem to have little interest. As far as I know this is the same situation in most if not all countries.
Jim C
2008-12-15 19:36:02