Folks, please read the original post here. There are laws in all countries about copyright and many of you are breaking them.
"Abandonware", as you call it, is still subject to copyright laws even if the publisher no longer supports the software or is out of business. After all, someone still owns the assets somewhere.
A case in point: SuperPaint, originally published by Silicon Beach. SuperPaint hasn't been sold for years and nobody supports it anymore. Furthermore, Silicon Beach appears to be long gone.
A little bit of research reveals that Silicon Beach was bought by Aldus, which was in turn bought by Adobe. Adobe happens to be one of the biggest and most powerful software companies and is always out to get people who pirate software (and for good reason--you would too if you lost money because people were passing your work around illegally).
SuperPaint was never released into the public domain. Therefore, it is still under copyright and will be for many more years to come.
The same can be said about the ROMs people have been posting about. They are just as illegal as the software.
Read the FAQ pages on SIIA's page about software piracy. You'll be surprised to learn that abandonware is just as illegal to pirate as the latest version of Office or Photoshop.
The only things that are legal to share/link to here are shareware, freeware, public domain, open source, and software made available by the publisher for anyone (such as Cliff Johnson's old games and Apple's old system downloads).
Note that the only versions of the Mac OS available for free are the ones on Apple's website. This used to not be the case but Apple infamously decided to change their policy on letting user groups (such as the Mac 512 online) pass out system software and older applications. The guy who runs the Mac 512 group/site got a letter about this in 2001 and has it posted; it clearly explains this policy.
Quit pirating stuff and support the industry. If you're not going to use software legally, I suggest selling your computer until you learn the law.
"Abandonware", as you call it, is still subject to copyright laws even if the publisher no longer supports the software or is out of business. After all, someone still owns the assets somewhere.
A case in point: SuperPaint, originally published by Silicon Beach. SuperPaint hasn't been sold for years and nobody supports it anymore. Furthermore, Silicon Beach appears to be long gone.
A little bit of research reveals that Silicon Beach was bought by Aldus, which was in turn bought by Adobe. Adobe happens to be one of the biggest and most powerful software companies and is always out to get people who pirate software (and for good reason--you would too if you lost money because people were passing your work around illegally).
SuperPaint was never released into the public domain. Therefore, it is still under copyright and will be for many more years to come.
The same can be said about the ROMs people have been posting about. They are just as illegal as the software.
Read the FAQ pages on SIIA's page about software piracy. You'll be surprised to learn that abandonware is just as illegal to pirate as the latest version of Office or Photoshop.
The only things that are legal to share/link to here are shareware, freeware, public domain, open source, and software made available by the publisher for anyone (such as Cliff Johnson's old games and Apple's old system downloads).
Note that the only versions of the Mac OS available for free are the ones on Apple's website. This used to not be the case but Apple infamously decided to change their policy on letting user groups (such as the Mac 512 online) pass out system software and older applications. The guy who runs the Mac 512 group/site got a letter about this in 2001 and has it posted; it clearly explains this policy.
Quit pirating stuff and support the industry. If you're not going to use software legally, I suggest selling your computer until you learn the law.