Abandonware Campaign & Petition

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Written by BuckGB on April 24th, 2006

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Past classics are now almost impossible to come by in the standard retail market, yet can be obtained from the darker corners of the internet free of charge, where the webmasters can lay claim to have undertaken the noble task of stopping these classic titles slipping into obscurity. Despite the fact that publishers no longer derive revenues from these games since they have stopped selling them (and any revenues from retailers that still sell them were gained a long time ago, at the time of sale), it is illegal to distribute them so long as copyright holders have not released them into the public domain, and 95 years after the games' release have not elapsed.

We're not demanding the release of thousands of back catalogue games for free as such things would require time and effort from the company that currently owns the rights to the titles. However in these days of high-speed internet connections, surely those companies could make their games available online, and have gamers pay a small fee to cover the cost in order that they might recapture the glory of a particular retro title?

Alternatives could include specifying a retailer where gamers can buy these old titles cheaply, and/or download them (devoid of box, instructions, technical support and any kind of warranty) for their own use it may not give gamers the chance to play old games for free, but it would guarantee that the games are not lost forever. In no way do we want the Company to relinquish their copyrights the game, characters, artwork, music and anything else related, will still be entirely theirs all we want is a chance to play the games again.

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