[H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> espoused:
> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>
>> US Copyright Office grants abandonware rights
>
> This might have been relevant ten years ago, and still is to a certain
> extent for things like old games, but IMHO the future is in Free
> Software, where the concept of "Abandonware" is largely moot.
>
As a future-looking thing, I think you're right, but it's worth noting
that there is a vast amount of binary-only software out there for all
those 8-bit and 16-bit machines from the 1980s and 1990s, including
arcade games and so on.
There's something about computer games which means that even the oldies,
if they gameplay is good, are still very playable, and with the
continuing growth of portable hardware capable of running emulators,
these old games have some value. I have a spectrum emulator on my Nokia
3360 and had one on the 6630 before I dropped it into a puddle, and my
N800 and N770s and the lads' GP2Xs do a good job of running gameboy
emulators and the like (another Z80 machine). Of course, gameboy games
are hardly in the abandonware category yet, but you know what I mean, I
hope.
I do not condone copyright violation.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
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