Are the DOS games on the Internet Archive legal?

As far as I'm aware, most of the games on there are classed as abandonware. So technically they're illegal but, as above, the licence holders most likely don't care anymore.
 
andy_mk3 said:
I would say that it is not legal. However a lot of it is so old the owners either wont notice or wont care.
Click to expand...
UnworthyBean said:
As far as I'm aware, most of the games on there are classed as abandonware. So technically they're illegal but, as above, the licence holders most likely don't care anymore.
Click to expand...
In the collection there are games like; Doom, Doom II, Ultimate Doom, Final Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Heretic, Rise of The Triad, Hocus Pocus, all of which are still sold on GOG, Steam... Some of which even seem to have ISOs included, and if you take Duke Nukem 3D for example the .GRP hash matches the one found on the GOG version.
 
Are the DOS games on the internet Archive Legal :- For most of them the answer is no.

Abandonware is not an official thing it is a community thing that has been adopted and re used. It has no legal standing at all.
Just because a person is not pursuing a copyright claim does not mean that no law has been broken.

Copyrights do expire over time but this varies from country to country and also varies based on medium.
There will always be an individual or company that owns the copyright for a released work, whether or not they choose to pursue the item is another matter.
This is the grey area that the abandonware sites currently sit in.

Lots of the games available on abandon ware sites are still very much copyrighted and being sold on various platforms.
DOOM is a perfect example. All its assets are very heavily protected and they will be pursued with vigour as is the general DOOM IP.

GoG prides itself on providing versions of older games that work on newer systems, are DRM free and have offline installers available.
This is a pirates wet dream as it translates into free (but illegal) stuff for everyone.

I do also believe that chit chat about abandonware is against the T&Cs of the OC forums, for all the reasons above.
 
Most of the copyright holders are probably long gone. Plus there is no more money to be made from them so they dont care.

Doom is different because its still huge and the IP is active.
 
Nasher said:
Most of the copyright holders are probably long gone. Plus there is no more money to be made from them so they dont care.

Doom is different because its still huge and the IP is active.
Click to expand...
Copyright / IP passes around as people sell the rights or die. This is why company's exist that there only source of income is other peoples copyrights.
The fact that someone did care, possibly doesn't now, but may do in the future is what makes it a grey area. Especially when lots of IP is being re-released with new updated games.
Lucas arts made some cash from the Monkey Island Franchise back in the day. Then the games got labelled as abandon ware. Now you can buy them again on modern platforms and services.

There is also a distinction between the "game" and its assets. Allot of assets are produced by people with artistic talent who only license there assets for use with that particular game and release for a particular system or for only a period.
A number of games have been removed from steam recently due to this as the period for the Soundtrack for example had expired.
 
If you planning on using these for home use? Than the DOS police won't be coming to arrest you in the middle of the night. You could inform the Police that you are playing DOS games from 30 years no one cares about and they will not care, if anything they likely arrest you for wasting police time.

If you planning on using these in a commercial sense, like in a school or some other public place, again, I doubt anyone will ever care, you can play all these games including Doom online in your browser on 1000's of websites now.
 
I'm sure someone does care about some of the games where the full version is available, Duke Nukem 3D for example. I'm not asking this because I want to get free games, its more of the fact that I paid for some of these games and am quite annoyed that major sites like PC Gamer are promoting sites which are in affect piracy sites. Its also not that you can just play it in your browser, you can get to download files and play it using the normal DOS Box, or which a source port.
 
Dark Light said:
I'm sure someone does care about some of the games where the full version is available, Duke Nukem 3D for example. I'm not asking this because I want to get free games, its more of the fact that I paid for some of these games and am quite annoyed that major sites like PC Gamer are promoting sites which are in affect piracy sites. Its also not that you can just play it in your browser, you can get to download files and play it using the normal DOS Box, or which a source port.
Click to expand...


I wouldn't worry about it...
 
They had a legal exemption for preservation of games which seems to have no expiration - but that was given before they started allowing games to be played 'for research purposes only'.

I imagine nobody cares enough to test that in a court, regardless of what they host on there.
 
Like with most things, the onus is on the individual to decide how to behave. Murder is illegal, some people choose to commit it. The law is usually applied after the fact, if at all.
It's not legal to drive faster than 70 mph in the UK but plenty of people do every day. Some of these titles are legally owned, maybe some are not. We'll only know for sure if the legal owners make an issue of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom