I even seen misleading articles on some gaming sites. If Abandonware ever became legal anyway, it would discourage companies from providing support for their old games even MORE!

Yeah; I've seen these "newsposts" as well. I responded to them on my front page, but I doubt anybody paid any attention.

Since you've started this topic, I've read at least twenty 'newsposts' in reference to this. All of them stating how this makes Abandonware legal.

I don't see where these people got those ideas! By now, I actually wished this would never have come up at all - it only caused harm and trouble so far

Well, that makes sense from any point of view. After all, it only grants the right to continue using your original software, even if you can't replace the hardware and OS (because they're not made) anymore. Glad to see there is at least a little common sense left in the world

Yesterday, the US Copyright Office has issued a wide ruling on the DMCA. While most attention has been directed to the fact that the CO ruled against Lexmark in the printer cartridge case, the Office has also touched on abandonware and ROMs. While the ruling doesn't put abandonware into public domain, it says that "video games from obsolete systems" are not covered by the DMCA; in other words it is legal to crack their copy protection (it is still illegal to distribute them), which is especially important for ROMs. What I consider more important, however, is that this is the first time a US government agency has made a distinction between new software and old software. Here's what Wired had to say:


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