The Video Game History Foundation, in partnership with the Software Preservation Network, has today claimed that “87% of classic video games released in the United States are critically endangered.”
Yeah but what can you do if a lot of the companies who made the original games aren’t around anymore and didn’t sell the rights to anyone else? Even some of the people who claim piracy is immoral understand that “pirating” abandonware is perfectly fine.
I like to think of it as fishing old games out of a dumpster. They were carelessly thrown away, no attempt is made to preserve them or make profit from them.
For me it’s pretty black and white here. If you don’t sell me something, there is no guilt anymore and I can download it for free. Same issue with TV shows in foreign languages where you can’t subscribe or buy anything (I’m looking at you Poland, Japan, and any other weird country that seems to ignore the rest of the world).
That wouldn’t really work, unfortunately. Most companies don’t just shut their doors, they’re bought by someone else. That new entity would own all the company’s property. Even when they do shut their doors, typically it’s done with debt, and debtors end up buying the assets.
Most of the IP rights for those old abandoned games are split up between a bunch of random legal firms.
Makes it a nightmare to legally remaster or remake old games. Since a game’s copyright will be owned by Law Firm A, and the trademark will be owned by Law Firm B, and the art and music will be owned by Law Firm C, but then Law Firm B says they actually own some of that art and music as part of their trademark ownership, etc etc
That makes the situation easier for piracy/unofficial ROMs though, since lawyers aren’t going to do shit when they can’t even figure out who legally owns a game.
Yeah but what can you do if a lot of the companies who made the original games aren’t around anymore and didn’t sell the rights to anyone else? Even some of the people who claim piracy is immoral understand that “pirating” abandonware is perfectly fine.
I would rather not call that piracy but latent preservation.
I do love latent preservating games I never owned
I am cool with that. Just pass the file forward once it is searched for as lost media.
I like to think of it as fishing old games out of a dumpster. They were carelessly thrown away, no attempt is made to preserve them or make profit from them.
They are fair game.
i recommend avp2 https://avpunknown.com/avp2aio/
I mean – the companies could have made an effort to make that money. If they don’t, profits aren’t automatic. I think this is clearly a grey area.
For me it’s pretty black and white here. If you don’t sell me something, there is no guilt anymore and I can download it for free. Same issue with TV shows in foreign languages where you can’t subscribe or buy anything (I’m looking at you Poland, Japan, and any other weird country that seems to ignore the rest of the world).
Just doing what archaeologists do. But with more recent history.
Should be a given that once the company dissolves the rights become open
That wouldn’t really work, unfortunately. Most companies don’t just shut their doors, they’re bought by someone else. That new entity would own all the company’s property. Even when they do shut their doors, typically it’s done with debt, and debtors end up buying the assets.
Most of the IP rights for those old abandoned games are split up between a bunch of random legal firms.
Makes it a nightmare to legally remaster or remake old games. Since a game’s copyright will be owned by Law Firm A, and the trademark will be owned by Law Firm B, and the art and music will be owned by Law Firm C, but then Law Firm B says they actually own some of that art and music as part of their trademark ownership, etc etc
That makes the situation easier for piracy/unofficial ROMs though, since lawyers aren’t going to do shit when they can’t even figure out who legally owns a game.
Why we’ll never get a bfme 3 but gollum gets greenlighted