Is downloading abandonware ok?

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Jabre

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most of the games i plan to play and show on this forum are old games downloaded off the internet, no longer supported or even officially sold by their creators. the term for such software is "abandonware", and it's basically free reign since the creators don't care about it enough anymore to go after anyone who torrents it. but is it a sin to pirate abandonware?
 

Mayflower

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Yeah you’re not stealing anything. Those are legacy games which are neither sold nor supported anymore. The only think that applies are copyrights.
Like for example, you can’t make a game like Mario and profit off of it.

So if I do an emulator for Gameboy advance, is it legal to play games on my phone?
 

Mayflower

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There is this one game I can't even remember the name of right now. It had four kids and they would go to different cities. In the end was so weird because the only thing that worked was loving on this big brain, all the cities started praying, and it was destroyed. It was neat
 

GaryAnderson

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So if I do an emulator for Gameboy advance, is it legal to play games on my phone?

The legality of this topic is somewhat neutral. Nobody has come after anybody else for playing emulated games and there has been no legal precedent in United States (as far as I know). So some people consider it a grey area and more of an ethical issue.
Ethical because you’re playing an old game which should be played with Super Nintendo for example. But, since nobody makes Super Nintendo hardware anymore, the need arises to play old games with other means. So that’s why it’s not a legal issue, because hardware and software support is discontinued .

the only thing that applies are copyrights and if you profit of a game or a game ripoff if you were to develop one for emulation or otherwise.
 
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farouk

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There is this one game I can't even remember the name of right now. It had four kids and they would go to different cities. In the end was so weird because the only thing that worked was loving on this big brain, all the cities started praying, and it was destroyed. It was neat
Not into video games...
 
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