Actually, that's not true. (US) Copyright law lasts for 70 years after the author's death, or 95 years after publication for corporate owned works, and no renewal is required.

(I consider that to be *way* too long, but that's the way the laws currently are.)

Exactly because
And if you say to me
You are a bustard, because you are not only too lazy to put a game in the online store, but also deny people to play a good game just because of your whim (since you don't get any money anyway).
Of cause, I will (and actually I do). Unless the game would be a crap like Heroes 4 or ME3.
Then making crappy sequels is a scam.
Corrections to #2, #4 and #5.
#2 There is no need for a game to being actually sold.
#4 - completely redundant statement.
#5 The game is already avaliable. The question is for the rights holder - to shut down the site or not.

If you disagree in politics, you're a Nazi and work for Putin... :P

But these labels put on are getting tired and old and stupid. Not to mention i think they've lost any semblance of control they once had.

They are too long, and it's obviously stifling creativity to revisit, expand on and revamp old titles. Worse that hollywood is only interested in pushing out rehashes of old titles that did well before, because somehow it will be successful because it was successful at one time...

You can thank Disney for it's current 70+Lifetime length for copyright, i think today copyright should probably be closer to 10 years, as within 5 years there's no more physical print of CD's, DVD's, Bluerays, books, etc. After 10 years the content has more or less expired.

Spoiler: Darth Vader is Luke's Father...

And for the most part they still don't care. Old games and emulation and the like don't give them a huge boost in revenue. Selling FarCry 4 will give FAR MORE COPIES than selling their old FarCry 1 game. And it's far more profitable.

The issue is the fact they can't turn the game off if they think it's time to retire it. It's out of their control. An always online system (SimCity, Overwatch, Dark Spore, FF 11/14) can be pulled and the game is effectively dead. EA's pulled a bunch of racing games that will never be playable again.

Lara Croft, indeed! :)

First, it is my opinion that piracy is an inappropriate term used only for its emotive impact. It would be more accurate to simply call it IP theft.

Second, all law is nothing more than ratified opinion. If you don't like the duration of copyright, and you live in a somewhat democratic society, than gather your signatures and petition your legislators to amend the copyright laws accordingly. Major copyright holders lobbied very hard to get the laws they wanted, but I cannot find much to show that consumers did the same.

I will even give you an idea to rally support for your cause. Start a rumor that Trump does not want a shorter term for copyright. Trump wants to deny the people access to free old games (5 years is like a hundred in software years). :)

30 years for movies and books.
5 years for video games.
E-book versions of college textbooks should always be free after 1 year.


If you don't like a law, it is better to try to change it than to break it.

Actually no. IP theft is more like when you use IP for commercial purposes. Like making your own Star Wars movie.

Better for whom?

Actually, I would argue that the terms "IP" and "theft" should not be used. "IP" can cause confusion as it refers to multiple concepts, each of which is treated legally. "theft" implies that you are taking something away from the original owner, which is not correct; you are duplicating something the original owner has, but the original owner still has it.

A better phrase to use here is "copyright infringement" (assuming you are talking about copyright law, and not patent or trademark law, which are different).

The real problem is the megacorporations.
The smaller problem is the pirates.

In the end, it's actual content producers (the developer who makes the video game) and consumers (people locked into Origin/uPlay/Denuvo/whatever crap) who suffer.

--------------------
The industry has become too corporate.

In the old days, the idea of the modern-day video game publisher was largely unthinkable. Most video game dev teams ranged from garage projects to small businesses with a dozen nerds and more support staff.

Developers self-published. The objective wasn't to get rich, it was to make a great product, get famous, test the limits of the day's hardware, or make an artistic statement. It was art in every sense of the term.

Then, the megacorporations slowly took over. The publisher taking more and more money and control away from the developers.

Fortunately, in recent years there's been a surge in independently-written ("indie") games.
--------------------
DRM: It's about control.

Make no mistake, the megacorporate media wants total control of what you see, hear, and think.

Shamefully (and perhaps surprisingly), America (the touted land of the free and home of the brave) has allowed itself to sink so far.

Ever wonder why just 6 corporations produce over 90% of the news and TV in America?

The real purposes of DRM are to snoop on the end-user and get rid of resales. "Piracy" has become the modern-day equivalent of accusing someone of heresy, immediately forcing everyone else to shut up and accept whatever unreasonable crap might follow, because anything's acceptable in the name of stamping out "piracy" according to the megacorporations.

The megacorporations want to condition people, indoctrinate people, that they should accept any amount of digital tyranny in the name of eradicating the "evil pirates who steal our profits and force us to come up with all these ridiculous DRM schemes that you, the end user, will be saddled with".

Granted, developers deserve to profit from what they make, and to some extent pirates are part of the problem.
--------------------
Megacorporate corruption and control of Western government

As was posted above: copyright law in the West is ridiculous, out of line, and severely imbalanced in favor of the publisher... because the publishers ordered Congress to write them that way.

Lifetime + 70 years? Who seriously needs a copyright that lasts that long? The entire point of intellectual property protection should be to foster and reward creativity, instead, the megacorporations have perverted it into an abomination that only serves to allow them to sit on their intellectual property forever. That doesn't foster and reward creativity - in fact, most of the money goes to the publisher rather than the content creator anyway.

The megacorporate movie and recording industry! What an abyss of bad influence on the nation's. Arrogant wacko actors pushing their nonsensical political agendas, always seeking new lows with their immorality, media establishmentmegacorporations forcing garbage like SOPA, PIPA, and TPP on the "land of the free". Also bear in mind that most of the movie industry in America has been bought out by Communist China.

SOPA, PIPA, and TPP, once again, are about control.It appears that they allow intellectual property holders to arbitrarily accuse people of violations and have the accused's Internet access shut down. The way those laws are written, the burden of proof is on the accused to prove their innocence. This allows the megacorporations to silence their political opponents through bogus accusations.

Forget the megacorporate accusations of "immoral pirates", while the pirates are a significant part of the problem, the media establishment has no right to lecture anyone about morality. They're despicable liars who have sold out all of YOU to make a few extra billion dollars.

Make no mistake: the mainstream movie, music, and media industries are at WAR with you and your digital rights. They will find any excuse, stoop to any low, even outright LIE until they control everything that you see, hear, and think - or go bankrupt trying.

Rule of thumb: If a corporation can effectively get laws written the way it demands, bust it for corruption, split it into several sub-companies, and exile its lobbyists.

Ever ask yourself: Why is populism surging in the West right now? (some would call it the "Trump effect")?

Government in the West has become corrupt and owned by the megacorporations. People want government on a scale comprehensible to its citizens. Likewise, the people must also demand business on a scale comprehensible to its workers and customers.

The vast majority of Trump supporters and populists aren't racist or bigoted, despite what the megacorporate media would have you believe. Trump (and other politicians like him who are receiving ever-increasing support in Europe) want to flush out the corrupt establishment, the unholy fusion of corrupt government and the largest corporations. The megacorporations are crapping their pants and resorting to every lie imaginable to stop the draining of the swamp.

All you leftists out there who hate the surge in populism: Have you ever considered the alternative? If you reject populism, the alternative is a corporate state with complete control over what you see, hear, think, and speak.

Granted, there may be occasional racists and bigots among the populists, then again, in any population of significant size there will always be a few wackos and looneys.

Read George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984". When you are finished, visit:
https://www.gog.com/game/deus_ex
(if you haven't already bought it) and study it as a literary masterpiece.

I've done that countless times (yes, on GOG), but you raise an important point. "Abandonware" is not a very good term if there is still a possibility any "forgotten" game might still be re-released, and at least after that you have no defense for downloading it for free.

There are some games that most probably will never be re-released, e.g. games including licenses. Some mentioned e.g. many sports car games (the car licenses will not be renewed for a re-release), or the retail Battle for the Middle-Earth 1-2 games that I have (using the LOTR license). Or how about all the old Dune-themed games, how probable do you feel it is they will be re-released?

I also have a retail version of the "Peter Jackson's King Kong" (2005) game, but the problem is it only works on Windows XP, and I don't have a PC fast enough, which would still have XP. I am kicking myself in the head I didn't buy the newer (DRM-free) version of the game from GamersGate when it was still available there, as apparently it had a better success running in Windows 7 etc., and IIRC also had better graphics.

Now they are not selling that game anymore in GamersGate so now I am stuck with my older retail version I can't play. I presume the game is not sold anymore due to the expired movie license. If I was able to find the digital "GamersGate"-version on some torrent site, I wouldn't really feel morally wrong about pirating it.


Also one important point: I think most of the old classics that e.g. GOG has resurrected have been received from abandonware sites (the game files, which GOG has then repackaged into DRM-free installers on the IP rights holders' permission). So if there hadn't been that "abandonware" scene, I feel the GOG collection for old classics would be far far smaller than what it is now.

Well, unfortunately, some do. Nintendo forced a number of webpages to close down their entire sections of Nintendo roms. Like coolrom. :'(

And other known webpages, display messages of such demands (together with removal of anything related). And some other companies did the same.

Problem is, they care enough to take action, even against fangames!!! And fangames that don't even use any asset or code from the original games, at all (Like Streets of Rage Remake, which got a cease and desist, regardless).

While I don't object to rebuying a game, be it cheap or the like (I have 3 Morrowind copies for Xbox, and 1 for PC), purchasing power is more towards if it offers something that 'free' or previously owned doesn't offer. For GoG and Humble Bundle, it's the updates that are rolled into the installer rather than having to do it myself. NWN is an example of a horrible update/patching system where although you could get the game for free, it's far simpler just to pay for it.

Abandonware is actually a decent term to use though. Some games (xixit) will never ever get re-released. Some companies went under and there just doesn't exist anyone owning the property. So it's locked in a non-legal status according to who can distribute/sell it. Then there's just the hardware issues where nothing can run it (Except via emulation or old hardware).

But I suppose none of this is really part of your argument.
Nintendo is an exception of a corporation being total assholes. They want to own and control everything attached to their product, claiming ownership to any video with 5 seconds of footage of one of their games or music or trailers.

edit: Now to be clear, it's understandable when it's a trademark because that has to be fought for tooth and nail to protect else you lose it. But their copyrighted instances aren't Trademarks. Mario while always will be tied and known for from Nintendo, isn't a trademark, anymore than Micky Mouse is. (Although both are iconic, and not in an ubisoft way)

So do I get you right that you also feel that games don't have any (artistic, emotional or whatever) value in itself? A game is a game, it doesn't really matter what you are playing as long as you are playing something?

So what is the point of GOG (as in the earlier "Good Old Games") then? Why are people rejoicing when some old legendary game, thought to be lost forever, is re-released? Why would you want to play old Baldur's Gate when you can play Candy Crush Saga?

I tend to see that (many) games have similar artistic value as e.g. movies or music. If the only way for anyone to see e.g. some old legendary Chaplin movie was to pirate it online (because it can't be sold nor bought legally by anyone due to legal problems or because the master copy has been destroyed)... then I don't see it as a big moral crime to indeed pirate it in order to watch it. I don't see it as a solution either that one could watch some 2017 movie instead, legally.

also doubt GOG would have had the impact it had if it weren't for abandonware. Abandonware kept the games in the mind of the people , thus their sell to the gaming companies was easier. I think what a lot of people forget, yes piracy of games that is still being sold is wrong, abandonware and romsites represents the idea that our digital heritage is important and should be preserved for future generations.

Another argument for piracy in some cases. Suppose that there is a game that:
1. Is so bad that the creators do not deserve to be paid for making it, but
2. That you want to try because you are curious.

Would you justify pirating the game in that instance?

(I am thinking of games like Big Rigs (which was essentially released in an early stage of development, before essential features like collision detection had been programmed) and Action 52 (which consists of 52 games, all of them bad, some unwinnable and at least one not playable on real hardware).)

Another thing I'd like to ask is how would you differentiate between a game that's definitely going to be released in some form or another, or a game that will never see the light again legally? I'll use Captain Claw again as an example. How many years, months and days since the game was released? It's about a decade and a half since its initial release, and yet there's no way to legally obtain it in 2017. A classic by all means, I think the message that its lack of release is delivering is that there's %95 probability it will never get rereleased.

This is also impaired by its severe lagging issue when trying to run the game fullscreen out of the box. You need DXWnd in order to get the game's speed to be exactly what it was, and this is talking about Windows 10 which for the intents of this context, will be considered the latest modern OS people have access to.

Again, how does one differentiate between a game that will be rereleased and a game that won't? How are we supposed to read the intentions of the publisher of the game so as to say "No, don't upload it on abandonware sites in case they change their minds later?"