Abandonware - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Content
11/12/2014
Abandonware - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abandonware
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abandonware is a product, typically software, ignored by its owner and manufacturer, and for which no product
support is available. Although such software is usually still under copyright, the owner may not be tracking or
enforcing copyright violations. Abandonware is a variant of the general concept of orphan works.
Contents
1 Definition
1.1 Types
2 Implications
3 Response to abandonware
3.1 Early abandonware websites
3.2 Archives
3.3 Community support
3.4 Re-releases by digital distribution
4 Arguments for and against distribution
5 Law
5.1 Enforcement of copyright
5.2 DMCA
5.3 US copyright law
5.4 Copyright expiration
6 Alternatives to software abandoning
6.1 Availability as freeware
6.2 Support by source code release
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Definition
Definitions of "abandoned" vary, but in general it is like any item that is abandoned - it is ignored by the owner, and
as such product support and possibly copyright enforcement are also "abandoned". It can refer to a product that is
no longer available for legal purchase, over the age where the product creator feels an obligation to continue to
support it, or where operating systems or hardware platforms have evolved to such a degree that the creator feels
continued support cannot be financially justified. In such cases, copyright and support issues are ignored. Software
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might also be considered abandoned when it can be used only with obsolete technologies, such as pre-Macintosh
Apple computers. A difference between abandonware and a discontinued product is that the manufacturer has
not issued an official notice of discontinuance; instead, the manufacturer is simply ignoring the product.
Abandonware may be computer software or physical devices which are usually computerised in some fashion, such
as personal computer games, productivity applications, utility software, or mobile phones.
Types
The term "abandonware" is broad, and encompasses many types of old software.
Commercial software unsupported but still owned by a viable company
The availability of the software depends on the company's attitude toward the software. In many cases, the
company which owns the software rights may not be that which originated it, or may not recognize their
ownership. Some companies, such as Borland, make some software available online,[1] in a form of
freeware. Others do not make old versions available for free use and do not permit people to copy the
software.
Commercial software owned by a company no longer in business
Often, no entity defends the copyright if such software is put onto abandonware websites. An example of this
is Digital Research's original PL/I compiler for DOS. The rights to the software cannot be bought by another
company; therefore, there is no possibility for a lawsuit.
Shareware whose author still makes it available
Finding historical versions, however, can be difficult since most shareware archives remove past versions
with the release of new versions. Authors may or may not make older releases available. Some websites
collect and offer for download old versions of shareware, freeware, and (in some cases) commercial
applications. In some cases these sites had to remove past versions of software, particularly if the company
producing that software still maintains it, or if later software releases introduce Digital Rights Management,
whereby old versions could be viewed as DRM circumvention.
Unsupported or unmaintained shareware
Again, finding historical versions may be possible, but very difficult.
Open source and freeware programs that have been abandoned
In some cases, source code remains available, which can prove a historical artifact. One such case is PCLISP, still found online, which implements the Franz Lisp dialect. The DOS-based PC-LISP still runs well
within emulators and on Microsoft Windows.
Implications
If a software product reaches end-of-life and becomes abandonware, users are confronted with several potential
problems: missing purchase availability (besides used software) and missing technical support, e.g. compatibility
fixes for newer hardware and operating systems. These problems are exacerbated if software is bound ("dongle")
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to physical media with a limited life-expectancy (floppy discs, optical media etc.) and backups are impossible
because of copy protection or copyright law. If the software product is without alternative, the missing replacement
availability becomes a challenge for continued software usage.
Also, once a software product has become abandonware for a developer, even historically important software
might get lost forever very easily, as several examples have shown.[2][3][4][5] One of many examples is the closure
of Atari in Sunnyvale in 1996, when the original source code of several milestones of video game history (like
Asteroids or Centipede) was thrown out as trash.[6][7]
Also, the missing availability of software and the associated source code can be a hindrance for software
archeology and research.[8]
Response to abandonware
Early abandonware websites
As response to the missing availability of abandonware, people have distributed old software since shortly after the
beginning of personal computing, but the activity remained low-key until the advent of the Internet. While trading
old games has taken many names and forms, the term "abandonware" was coined by Peter Ringering in late 1996.
Ringering found classic game websites similar to his own, contacted their webmasters, and formed the original
Abandonware Ring in February 1997.[9] This original webring was little more than a collection of sites linking to
adventureclassicgaming.com. Another was a site indexing them all to provide a rudimentary search facility. In
October 1997, the Interactive Digital Software Association sent cease and desist letters to all sites within the
Abandonware Ring, which led to most shutting down. An unintended consequence (called the Streisand effect in
Internet parlance) was that it spurred others to create new abandonware sites and organizations that came to
outnumber the original Ring members. Sites formed after the demise of the original Abandonware Ring include
Abandonia and Home of the Underdogs.
Archives
Several websites archive abandonware for download, including old versions of applications which are difficult to
find by any other means. Much of this software fits the definition of "software that is no longer current, but is still of
interest", but the line separating the use and distribution of abandonware from copyright infringement is blurry, and
the term abandonware could be used to distribute software without proper notification of the owner.
The Internet Archive has created an archive of what it describes as "vintage software", as a way to preserve
them.[10] The project advocated for an exemption from the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act to
permit them to bypass copy protection, which was approved in 2003 for a period of 3 years.[11] The exemption
was renewed in 2006, and as of 27 October 2009, has been indefinitely extended pending further rulemakings.[12]
The Archive does not offer this software for download, as the exemption is solely "for the purpose of preservation
or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive."[13] Nevertheless, in 2013 the Internet
Archive began to provide antique games as browser-playable emulation via MESS, for instance the Atari 2600
game E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[14]
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Also the Library of Congress began with the long-time preservation of video games with the Game canon list
around 2006.[15] In September 2012 the collection had nearly 3,000 games from many platforms and also around
1,500 strategy guides.[16] For instance, the source code of the unreleased PlayStation Portable game Duke Nukem:
Critical Mass was discovered in August 2014 to be preserved at the Library of Congress.[17][18][19]
In 2010 Computer History Museum began with the preservation of source code of important software, beginning
with Apple's MacPaint 1.3.[20][21] In 2012 the APL programming language followed.[22] Adobe Systems, Inc.
donated the Photoshop 1.0.1 source code to the collection in February 2013.[23][24] The source code is made
available to the public under an own non-commercial license. On March 25, 2014 followed Microsoft with the
donation of MS-DOS variants as well as Word for Windows 1.1a under their own license.[25][26]
Since around 2009 the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) has taken a five-pronged
approach to video game preservation: original software and hardware, marketing materials and publications,
production records, play capture, and finally the source code.[27] In December 2013 the ICHEG received a
donation of several SSI video games, for instance Computer Bismarck, including the source code for
preservation.[28][29] In 2014 a collection of Brøderbund games[30] and a "virtually complete" Atari arcade machine
source code and asset collection was added.[31]
There are also some cases in which the source code of games was given to a fan community for long-time
preservation, e.g. several titles of the Wing Commander video game series.[32][33][34]
Community support
In response to the missing software support, sometimes the software's user community begins to provide support
(bug fixes, compatibility adaptions etc.) even without available source code, internal software documentation and
original developer tools.[35] Methods are debugging, reverse engineering of file and data formats, and hacking the
binary executables. Often the results are distributed as unofficial patches. Notable examples are Fallout 2,[36]
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines[37] or even Windows 98.[38] For instance in 2012, when the multiplayer
game Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance became unsupported abandonware as the official multiplayer
server and support was shut down,[39][40] the game community itself took over with a self-developed multiplayer
server and client.[41][42][43]
Re-releases by digital distribution
With the new possibility of the digital distribution in mid-2000 the commercial distribution for many old titles
became feasible again as deployment and storage costs dropped significantly.[44] A Digital Distributor specialized in
bringing old games out of abandonware is GOG.com (formerly called Good Old Games) who started 2008 to
search for copyright holders of classic games to release them legally and DRM-free again.[45] For instance, on
December 9, 2013 the real-time strategy video game Conquest: Frontier Wars was, after ten years of nonavailability, re-released by gog.com, also including the source code.[46][47]
Arguments for and against distribution
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Proponents of abandonware preservation argue that it is more ethical to make copies of such software than new
software that still sells. Those ignorant of copyright law have incorrectly taken this to mean that abandonware is
legal to distribute, although no software written since 1964 is old enough for copyright to have expired in the
US.[48] Even in cases where the original company no longer exists, the rights usually belong to someone else,
though no one may be able to trace actual ownership, including the owners themselves.
Abandonware advocates also frequently cite historical preservation as a reason for trading abandoned software.[9]
Older computer media are fragile and prone to rapid deterioration, necessitating transfer of these materials to more
modern, stable media and generation of many copies to ensure the software will not simply disappear. Users of stillfunctional older computer systems argue for the need of abandonware because re-release of software by copyright
holders will most likely target modern systems or incompatible media instead, preventing legal purchase of
compatible software.
Those who oppose these practices argue that distribution denies the copyright holder potential sales, in the form of
re-released titles, official emulation, and so on. Likewise, they argue that if people can acquire an old version of a
program for free, they may be less likely to purchase a newer version if the old version meets their needs.
Some game developers showed sympathy for abandonware websites as they preserve their classical game titles.
[...] personally, I think that sites that support these old games are a good thing for both consumers and
copyright owners. If the options are (a) having a game be lost forever and (b) having it available on
one of these sites, I'd want it to be available. That being said, I believe a game is 'abandoned' only
long after it is out of print. And just because a book is out of print does not give me rights to print
some for my friends.
—Richard Garriott, Saltzman, Marc (2002). "Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On
Abandonware". gamespot.com. p. 4. Archived from the original on 2006. Retrieved
December 29, 2012.
Is it piracy? Yeah, sure. But so what? Most of the game makers aren't living off the revenue from
those old games anymore. Most of the creative teams behind all those games have long since left the
companies that published them, so there's no way the people who deserve to are still making royalties
off them. So go ahead--steal this game! Spread the love!
—Tim Schafer, Saltzman, Marc (2002). "Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On
Abandonware". gamespot.com. p. 4. Archived from the original on 2006. Retrieved
December 29, 2012.
If I owned the copyright on Total Annihilation, I would probably allow it to be shared for free by now
(four years after it was originally released)
—Chris Taylor, Saltzman, Marc (2002). "Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On
Abandonware". gamespot.com. p. 5. Archived from the original on 2006. Retrieved
December 29, 2012.
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Law
In most cases, software classed as abandonware is not in the public domain, as it has never had its original
copyright officially revoked and some company or individual may still own rights. While sharing of such software is
usually considered copyright infringement, in practice copyright holders rarely enforce their abandonware copyrights
and may allow the product to de facto lapse into the public domain to such an extent that enforcement becomes
impractical.
Rarely has any abandonware case gone to court. But it is still unlawful to distribute copies of old copyrighted
software and games, with or without compensation, in any Berne Convention signatory country.[49]
Enforcement of copyright
Old copyrights are usually left undefended. This can be due to intentional non-enforcement by owners due to
software age or obsolescence, but sometimes results from a corporate copyright holder going out of business
without explicitly transferring ownership, leaving no one aware of the right to defend the copyright.
Even if the copyright is not defended, copying of such software is still unlawful in most jurisdictions when a
copyright is still in effect. Abandonware changes hands on the assumption that the resources required to enforce
copyrights outweigh benefits a copyright holder might realize from selling software licenses. Additionally,
abandonware proponents argue that distributing software for which there is no one to defend the copyright is
morally acceptable, even where unsupported by current law. Companies that have gone out of business without
transferring their copyrights are an example of this; many hardware and software companies that developed older
systems are long since out of business and precise documentation of the copyrights may not be readily available.
Often the availability of abandonware on the Internet is related to the willingness of copyright holders to defend their
copyrights. For example, unencumbered games for Colecovision are markedly easier to find on the Internet than
unencumbered games for Mattel Intellivision in large part because there is still a company that sells Intellivision
games while no such company exists for the Colecovision.
DMCA
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) can be a problem for the preservation of old software as it
prohibits required techniques. In October 2003, the US Congress passed 4 clauses to the DMCA which allow for
reverse engineering software in case of preservation.
"3. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which
require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. ...The register has concluded that to
the extent that libraries and archives wish to make preservation copies of published software and
videogames that were distributed in formats that are (either because the physical medium on which
they were distributed is no longer in use or because the use of an obsolete operating system is
required), such activity is a noninfringing use covered by section 108(c) of the Copyright Act."
—Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access
Control Technologies (http://www.copyright.gov/1201/docs/fedreg-notice-final.pdf) (PDF)
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In November 2006 the Library of Congress approved an exemption to the DMCA that permits the cracking of
copy protection on software no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder so that they can be archived
and preserved without fear of retribution.[50][51]
US copyright law
Currently, US copyright law does not recognize the term or concept of "abandonware" while the general concept
"orphan works" is recognized (see Orphan works in the United States). There is a long held concept of
abandonment in trademark law as a direct result of the infinite term of trademark protection. Currently, a copyright
can be released into the public domain if the owner clearly does so in writing; however this formal process is not
considered abandoning, but rather releasing. Those who do not own a copyright cannot merely claim the copyright
abandoned and start using protected works without permission of the copyright holder, who could then seek legal
remedy.
Hosting and distributing copyrighted software without permission is illegal. Copyright holders, sometimes through
the Entertainment Software Association, send cease and desist letters, and some sites have shut down or removed
infringing software as a result. However, most of the Association's efforts are devoted to new games, due to those
titles possessing the greatest value.[52]
Copyright expiration
Once the copyright on a piece of software has expired, it automatically falls into public domain. Such software can
be legally distributed without restrictions. However, due to the length of copyright terms in most countries, this has
yet to happen for most software. All countries that observe the Berne Convention enforce copyright ownership for
at least 50 years after publication or the author's death. However, individual countries may choose to enforce
copyrights for longer periods. In the United States, copyright durations are determined based on authorship. For
most published works, the duration is 70 years after the author's death. However, for anonymous works, works
published under a pseudonym or works made for hire, the duration is 120 years after publication. In France,
copyright durations are 70 years after the relevant date (date of author's death or publication) for either class.
However, because of the length of copyright enforcement in most countries, it is likely that by the time a piece of
software defaults to public domain, it will have long become obsolete, irrelevant, or incompatible with any existing
hardware. Additionally, due to the relatively short commercial, as well as physical, lifespans of most digital media, it
is entirely possible that by the time the copyright expires for a piece of software, it will no longer exist in any form.
However, since the largest risk in dealing with abandonware is that of distribution, this may be mitigated somewhat
by private users (or organizations such as the Internet Archive) making private copies of such software, which
would then be legally redistributable at the time of copyright expiry.
Alternatives to software abandoning
There are alternatives for companies with a software product which faces the end-of-life instead of abandoning the
software in an unsupported state.
Availability as freeware
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Sometimes user-communities convince companies to voluntarily relinquish copyright on software, putting it into the
public domain, or re-license it as free software or as freeware. Transfer of public domain or freely licensed software
is perfectly legal, distinguishing it from abandonware which still has full copyright restrictions.
Amstrad is an example which supports emulation and free distribution of CPC and ZX Spectrum hardware ROMs
and software.[53] Borland is another example for a company who released "antique software" as freeware.[1] Smith
Engineering permits not-for-profit reproduction and distribution of Vectrex games and documentation.[54]
There are groups that lobby companies to release their software as freeware. These efforts have met with mixed
results. One example is the library of educational titles released by MECC. MECC was sold to Brøderbund, which
was sold to The Learning Company. When TLC was contacted about releasing classic MECC titles as freeware,
the documentation proving that TLC held the rights to these titles could not be located, and therefore the rights for
these titles are "in limbo" and may never be legally released.[55]
Support by source code release
The problem of missing technical support for a software can be most effectively solved when the source code
becomes available. Therefore several companies decided to release the source code specifically to allow the user
communities to provide further technical software support (bug fixes, compatibility adaptions etc.)
themselves,[56][57] e.g. by community patches or source ports to new computing platforms.
Id Software and 3D Realms are early proponents in this practice, releasing the source code for the game engines of
some older titles under a free software license (but not the actual game content, such as levels or textures). Also
Falcon 4.0's lead designer Kevin Klemmick argued in 2011 that availability of the source code of his software for
the community was a good thing:
I honestly think this [source code release] should be standard procedure for companies that decide
not to continue to support a code base.
—Kevin Klemmick, interviewed by Bertolone, Giorgio (2011-03-12). "Interview with Kevin
Klemmick - Lead Software Engineer for Falcon 4.0". Cleared-To-Engage. Archived from
the original on 2011-03-18. Retrieved 2014-08-31.
The chilling effect of drawing a possible lawsuit can discourage release of source code. Efforts to persuade IBM to
release OS/2 as open source software were ignored[58] since some of the code was co-developed by Microsoft.
Nevertheless, several notable examples of successfully opened commercial software exist, for instance, the web
browser Netscape Communicator, which was released by Netscape Communications on March 31, 1998.[59] The
development was continued under the umbrella of the Mozilla Foundation and Netscape Communicator became
the basis of several browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox.[60]
Another important example for open sourced general software is the office suite StarOffice which was released by
Sun Microsystems in October 2000 as OpenOffice.org[61] and is in continued development as LibreOffice and
Apache OpenOffice.
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There are also many examples in the video game domain: Revolution Software released their game Beneath a Steel
Sky as freeware and gave the engine's source code to the authors of ScummVM to add support for the game.
Other examples are Myth II,[62] Call to Power II[63] and Microsoft's Allegiance[57] which were released to allow
the community to continue the support.
See also
Orphaned technology
Out of print
Software archaeology
List of commercial software with available source code
List of commercial video games with available source code
List of commercial games released as freeware
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author and publishers claim the package would include MS-DOS 1.1 and 2.0, it actually contains SCP MS-DOS
1.25 and a mixture of files from Altos MS-DOS 2.11 and TeleVideo PC DOS 2.11.)
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2013. Retrieved January 14, 2013. "Thanks to an extremely kind donation from an anonymous former EA/Origin
developer, the source code to the PC version of Wing Commander I is now preserved in our offline archive!
Because of our agreement with Electronic Arts, we're not allowed to post recovered source code for download--but
rest easy knowing that the C files that started it all are being kept safe for future reference. Our offline archive
contains material that has been preserved but which can't be posted, including other source code and budget data
from several of the games."
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late 1990s, we would like to mention for anyone that we have the game's source code in our offline archive. We
know it's frustrating for fans, who could do amazing things with this, to read these updates... but it's also in
everyone's best interests to remind EA that we have the raw material from which they could port Wing Commander
III to a modern computer or console. Just let us know!"
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extremely kind former EA/Origin employee has provided a copy of the Wing Commander IV source code for our
preservation efforts! We can't offer it for download at this time, but it is now preserved for future use."
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few months after release, but the fans have just kept on going, fixing things, improving things, digging up locked
away extra content [...]"
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Informationen zu diesem kuriosen Update-Pack: Da Microsoft nie ein Servicepack für Windows 98 SE (Zweite
Ausgabe) herausgebracht hat, hat ein Programmierer aus der Türkei kurzerhand sein eigenes Servicepack für
Windows 98 SE-Anwender erstellt. Es beinhaltet alle Windows 98 SE Updates von der Windows Update-Seite und
weitere Updates sowie Verbesserungen."
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huge risk – you had all this money tied up in silicon in a warehouse somewhere, and so you’d be conservative in
the decisions you felt you could make, very conservative in the IPs you signed, your art direction would not
change, and so on. Now it’s the opposite extreme: we can put something up on Steam, deliver it to people all
around the world, make changes. We can take more interesting risks.[...] On Steam there’s no shelf-space
restriction. It’s great because they’re a bunch of old, orphaned games."
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games into the downloadable era with low prices and no DRM."
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copy protection on old games--in some circumstances." (http://www.gamespot.com/news/abandonware-nowlegal-6162308). Gamespot.com. Retrieved January 11, 2013.
52. ^ King, Brad (January 19, 2002). "Abandonware: Dead Games Live On"
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fromgroups=#!msg/comp.sys.amstrad.8bit/HtpBU2Bzv_U/HhNDSU3MksAJ). comp.sys.amstrad.8bit. Retrieved
January 19, 2013. "1) What exactly do you have to do to use Sinclair ROMs in an emulator, such as
acknowledgements etc?" Amstrad are happy for emulator writers to include images of our copyrighted code as
long as the (c)opyright messages are not altered and we appreciate it if the program/manual includes a note to the
effect that "Amstrad have kindly given their permission for the redistribution of their copyrighted material but
retain that copyright"."
54. ^ "Vectrex System History The Mini Arcade" (http://vectrexmuseum.com/vectrexhistory.php). Vectrex Museum.
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55. ^ Savetz, Kevin (September 17, 2001). "Can "Abandonware" Revive Forgotten Programs?"
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56. ^ Largent, Andy (October 8, 2003). "Homeworld Source Code Released"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20131012012745/http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=8516).
www.insidemacgames.com. Archived from the original (http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?
ArticleID=8516) on October 12, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2012. "With the release of Homeworld 2 for the
PC, Relic Entertainment has decided to give back to their impressive fan community by releasing the source code
to the original Homeworld."
57. ^ a b Colayco, Bob (February 6, 2004). "Microsoft pledges Allegiance to its fanbase"
(http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/allegiance/news.html?
sid=6087574&om_act=convert&om_clk=newsfeatures&tag=newsfeatures;title;1). gamespot.com. Retrieved July
22, 2011. "The release of the source code came in response to the enthusiasm of Allegiance's small-but-dedicated
fanbase. Microsoft's Joel Dehlin commented that the development team has "been amazed at the level to which
some of the Allegiance fans have remained hard-core. We’re astounded at the progress that has been made at
creating new factions, hosting new servers, replacing authentication, etc. It seems that Allegiance hasn’t really
died. With that in mind, we’re releasing the Allegiance source code to the community.""
58. ^ Reed, Michael (February 7, 2008). "I'm Glad That IBM Declined to Release the OS/2 Source"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20140221095812/http://www.osnews.com/story/19298/_I_m_Glad_That_IBM_Declin
ed_to_Release_the_OS_2_Source_). OSNews LLC. Archived from the original
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59. ^ "NETSCAPE ANNOUNCES PLANS TO MAKE NEXT-GENERATION COMMUNICATOR SOURCE CODE
AVAILABLE FREE ON THE NET"
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MOVE TO HARNESS CREATIVE POWER OF THOUSANDS OF INTERNET DEVELOPERS; COMPANY
MAKES NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR AND COMMUNICATOR 4.0 IMMEDIATELY FREE FOR ALL USERS,
SEEDING MARKET FOR ENTERPRISE AND NETCENTER BUSINESSES "
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60. ^ "MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Netscape Communications and open source developers are
celebrating the first anniversary, March 31, 1999, of the release of Netscape's browser source code to mozilla.org"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20140326215538/http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netscape-celebratesfirst-anniversary-of-open-source-software-release-to-mozillaorg-73806207.html). Netscape Communications.
March 31, 1999. Archived from the original (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netscape-celebrates-firstanniversary-of-open-source-software-release-to-mozillaorg-73806207.html) on March 26, 2014. Retrieved January
10, 2013. "[...]The organization that manages open source developers working on the next generation of
Netscape's browser and communication software. This event marked a historical milestone for the Internet as
Netscape became the first major commercial software company to open its source code, a trend that has since been
followed by several other corporations. Since the code was first published on the Internet, thousands of individuals
and organizations have downloaded it and made hundreds of contributions to the software. Mozilla.org is now
celebrating this one-year anniversary with a party Thursday night in San Francisco."
61. ^ Proffitt, Brian (October 13, 2000). "StarOffice Code Released in Largest Open Source Project"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20131016014106/http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2000101300221NWDTSW).
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October 16, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013. "Sun's joint effort with CollabNet kicked into high gear on the
OpenOffice Web site at 5 a.m. PST this morning with the release of much of the source code for the upcoming 6.0
version of StarOffice. According to Sun, this release of 9 million lines of code under GPL is the beginning of the
largest open source software project ever."
62. ^ Wen, Howard (June 10, 2004). "Keeping the Myths Alive"
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pers.html). linuxdevcenter.com. Archived from the original
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2012. "[...]fans of the Myth trilogy have taken this idea a step further: they have official access to the source code
for the Myth games. Organized under the name MythDevelopers, this all-volunteer group of programmers, artists,
and other talented people devote their time to improving and supporting further development of the Myth game
series."
63. ^ Bell, John (October 1, 2009). "Opening the Source of Art"
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2012. "[...]that no further patches to the title would be forthcoming. The community was predictably upset. Instead
of giving up on the game, users decided that if Activision wasn't going to fix the bugs, they would. They wanted to
save the game by getting Activision to open the source so it could be kept alive beyond the point where Activision
lost interest. With some help from members of the development team that were active on fan forums, they were
eventually able to convince Activision to release Call to Power II's source code in October of 2003."
External links
Articles
Kauffman, Jeremiah (April 9, 2009). "Abandonwarez: the pros outweigh the cons"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware
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(http://web.archive.org/web/20140329183226/http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/featur
es/160/). Archived from the original (http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/features/160/)
on March 29, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
Saltzman, Marc (2002). "Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On Abandonware"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20060130174649/http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/abandonwa
re/index.html). gamespot.com. Archived from the original
(http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/abandonware/p2_01.html) on 2006. Retrieved December
29, 2012.
Andersen, John (January 27, 2011). "Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20130422061043/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6271/where_games
_go_to_sleep_the_game_.php?print=1). Gamasutra. Archived from the original
(http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6271/where_games_go_to_sleep_the_game_.php?print=1) on
April 22, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
Bell, John (October 2009). "Opening the Source of Art"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20140330084636/http://timreview.ca/article/294). Technology Innovation
Management Review. Archived from the original (http://timreview.ca/article/294) on March 30, 2014.
Retrieved July 11, 2013.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abandonware&oldid=627649393"
Categories: Video game culture Nostalgia Software distribution Software maintenance Streisand effect
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Abandonware
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abandonware is a product, typically software, ignored by its owner and manufacturer, and for which no product
support is available. Although such software is usually still under copyright, the owner may not be tracking or
enforcing copyright violations. Abandonware is a variant of the general concept of orphan works.
Contents
1 Definition
1.1 Types
2 Implications
3 Response to abandonware
3.1 Early abandonware websites
3.2 Archives
3.3 Community support
3.4 Re-releases by digital distribution
4 Arguments for and against distribution
5 Law
5.1 Enforcement of copyright
5.2 DMCA
5.3 US copyright law
5.4 Copyright expiration
6 Alternatives to software abandoning
6.1 Availability as freeware
6.2 Support by source code release
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Definition
Definitions of "abandoned" vary, but in general it is like any item that is abandoned - it is ignored by the owner, and
as such product support and possibly copyright enforcement are also "abandoned". It can refer to a product that is
no longer available for legal purchase, over the age where the product creator feels an obligation to continue to
support it, or where operating systems or hardware platforms have evolved to such a degree that the creator feels
continued support cannot be financially justified. In such cases, copyright and support issues are ignored. Software
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might also be considered abandoned when it can be used only with obsolete technologies, such as pre-Macintosh
Apple computers. A difference between abandonware and a discontinued product is that the manufacturer has
not issued an official notice of discontinuance; instead, the manufacturer is simply ignoring the product.
Abandonware may be computer software or physical devices which are usually computerised in some fashion, such
as personal computer games, productivity applications, utility software, or mobile phones.
Types
The term "abandonware" is broad, and encompasses many types of old software.
Commercial software unsupported but still owned by a viable company
The availability of the software depends on the company's attitude toward the software. In many cases, the
company which owns the software rights may not be that which originated it, or may not recognize their
ownership. Some companies, such as Borland, make some software available online,[1] in a form of
freeware. Others do not make old versions available for free use and do not permit people to copy the
software.
Commercial software owned by a company no longer in business
Often, no entity defends the copyright if such software is put onto abandonware websites. An example of this
is Digital Research's original PL/I compiler for DOS. The rights to the software cannot be bought by another
company; therefore, there is no possibility for a lawsuit.
Shareware whose author still makes it available
Finding historical versions, however, can be difficult since most shareware archives remove past versions
with the release of new versions. Authors may or may not make older releases available. Some websites
collect and offer for download old versions of shareware, freeware, and (in some cases) commercial
applications. In some cases these sites had to remove past versions of software, particularly if the company
producing that software still maintains it, or if later software releases introduce Digital Rights Management,
whereby old versions could be viewed as DRM circumvention.
Unsupported or unmaintained shareware
Again, finding historical versions may be possible, but very difficult.
Open source and freeware programs that have been abandoned
In some cases, source code remains available, which can prove a historical artifact. One such case is PCLISP, still found online, which implements the Franz Lisp dialect. The DOS-based PC-LISP still runs well
within emulators and on Microsoft Windows.
Implications
If a software product reaches end-of-life and becomes abandonware, users are confronted with several potential
problems: missing purchase availability (besides used software) and missing technical support, e.g. compatibility
fixes for newer hardware and operating systems. These problems are exacerbated if software is bound ("dongle")
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to physical media with a limited life-expectancy (floppy discs, optical media etc.) and backups are impossible
because of copy protection or copyright law. If the software product is without alternative, the missing replacement
availability becomes a challenge for continued software usage.
Also, once a software product has become abandonware for a developer, even historically important software
might get lost forever very easily, as several examples have shown.[2][3][4][5] One of many examples is the closure
of Atari in Sunnyvale in 1996, when the original source code of several milestones of video game history (like
Asteroids or Centipede) was thrown out as trash.[6][7]
Also, the missing availability of software and the associated source code can be a hindrance for software
archeology and research.[8]
Response to abandonware
Early abandonware websites
As response to the missing availability of abandonware, people have distributed old software since shortly after the
beginning of personal computing, but the activity remained low-key until the advent of the Internet. While trading
old games has taken many names and forms, the term "abandonware" was coined by Peter Ringering in late 1996.
Ringering found classic game websites similar to his own, contacted their webmasters, and formed the original
Abandonware Ring in February 1997.[9] This original webring was little more than a collection of sites linking to
adventureclassicgaming.com. Another was a site indexing them all to provide a rudimentary search facility. In
October 1997, the Interactive Digital Software Association sent cease and desist letters to all sites within the
Abandonware Ring, which led to most shutting down. An unintended consequence (called the Streisand effect in
Internet parlance) was that it spurred others to create new abandonware sites and organizations that came to
outnumber the original Ring members. Sites formed after the demise of the original Abandonware Ring include
Abandonia and Home of the Underdogs.
Archives
Several websites archive abandonware for download, including old versions of applications which are difficult to
find by any other means. Much of this software fits the definition of "software that is no longer current, but is still of
interest", but the line separating the use and distribution of abandonware from copyright infringement is blurry, and
the term abandonware could be used to distribute software without proper notification of the owner.
The Internet Archive has created an archive of what it describes as "vintage software", as a way to preserve
them.[10] The project advocated for an exemption from the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act to
permit them to bypass copy protection, which was approved in 2003 for a period of 3 years.[11] The exemption
was renewed in 2006, and as of 27 October 2009, has been indefinitely extended pending further rulemakings.[12]
The Archive does not offer this software for download, as the exemption is solely "for the purpose of preservation
or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive."[13] Nevertheless, in 2013 the Internet
Archive began to provide antique games as browser-playable emulation via MESS, for instance the Atari 2600
game E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[14]
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Also the Library of Congress began with the long-time preservation of video games with the Game canon list
around 2006.[15] In September 2012 the collection had nearly 3,000 games from many platforms and also around
1,500 strategy guides.[16] For instance, the source code of the unreleased PlayStation Portable game Duke Nukem:
Critical Mass was discovered in August 2014 to be preserved at the Library of Congress.[17][18][19]
In 2010 Computer History Museum began with the preservation of source code of important software, beginning
with Apple's MacPaint 1.3.[20][21] In 2012 the APL programming language followed.[22] Adobe Systems, Inc.
donated the Photoshop 1.0.1 source code to the collection in February 2013.[23][24] The source code is made
available to the public under an own non-commercial license. On March 25, 2014 followed Microsoft with the
donation of MS-DOS variants as well as Word for Windows 1.1a under their own license.[25][26]
Since around 2009 the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) has taken a five-pronged
approach to video game preservation: original software and hardware, marketing materials and publications,
production records, play capture, and finally the source code.[27] In December 2013 the ICHEG received a
donation of several SSI video games, for instance Computer Bismarck, including the source code for
preservation.[28][29] In 2014 a collection of Brøderbund games[30] and a "virtually complete" Atari arcade machine
source code and asset collection was added.[31]
There are also some cases in which the source code of games was given to a fan community for long-time
preservation, e.g. several titles of the Wing Commander video game series.[32][33][34]
Community support
In response to the missing software support, sometimes the software's user community begins to provide support
(bug fixes, compatibility adaptions etc.) even without available source code, internal software documentation and
original developer tools.[35] Methods are debugging, reverse engineering of file and data formats, and hacking the
binary executables. Often the results are distributed as unofficial patches. Notable examples are Fallout 2,[36]
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines[37] or even Windows 98.[38] For instance in 2012, when the multiplayer
game Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance became unsupported abandonware as the official multiplayer
server and support was shut down,[39][40] the game community itself took over with a self-developed multiplayer
server and client.[41][42][43]
Re-releases by digital distribution
With the new possibility of the digital distribution in mid-2000 the commercial distribution for many old titles
became feasible again as deployment and storage costs dropped significantly.[44] A Digital Distributor specialized in
bringing old games out of abandonware is GOG.com (formerly called Good Old Games) who started 2008 to
search for copyright holders of classic games to release them legally and DRM-free again.[45] For instance, on
December 9, 2013 the real-time strategy video game Conquest: Frontier Wars was, after ten years of nonavailability, re-released by gog.com, also including the source code.[46][47]
Arguments for and against distribution
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Proponents of abandonware preservation argue that it is more ethical to make copies of such software than new
software that still sells. Those ignorant of copyright law have incorrectly taken this to mean that abandonware is
legal to distribute, although no software written since 1964 is old enough for copyright to have expired in the
US.[48] Even in cases where the original company no longer exists, the rights usually belong to someone else,
though no one may be able to trace actual ownership, including the owners themselves.
Abandonware advocates also frequently cite historical preservation as a reason for trading abandoned software.[9]
Older computer media are fragile and prone to rapid deterioration, necessitating transfer of these materials to more
modern, stable media and generation of many copies to ensure the software will not simply disappear. Users of stillfunctional older computer systems argue for the need of abandonware because re-release of software by copyright
holders will most likely target modern systems or incompatible media instead, preventing legal purchase of
compatible software.
Those who oppose these practices argue that distribution denies the copyright holder potential sales, in the form of
re-released titles, official emulation, and so on. Likewise, they argue that if people can acquire an old version of a
program for free, they may be less likely to purchase a newer version if the old version meets their needs.
Some game developers showed sympathy for abandonware websites as they preserve their classical game titles.
[...] personally, I think that sites that support these old games are a good thing for both consumers and
copyright owners. If the options are (a) having a game be lost forever and (b) having it available on
one of these sites, I'd want it to be available. That being said, I believe a game is 'abandoned' only
long after it is out of print. And just because a book is out of print does not give me rights to print
some for my friends.
—Richard Garriott, Saltzman, Marc (2002). "Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On
Abandonware". gamespot.com. p. 4. Archived from the original on 2006. Retrieved
December 29, 2012.
Is it piracy? Yeah, sure. But so what? Most of the game makers aren't living off the revenue from
those old games anymore. Most of the creative teams behind all those games have long since left the
companies that published them, so there's no way the people who deserve to are still making royalties
off them. So go ahead--steal this game! Spread the love!
—Tim Schafer, Saltzman, Marc (2002). "Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On
Abandonware". gamespot.com. p. 4. Archived from the original on 2006. Retrieved
December 29, 2012.
If I owned the copyright on Total Annihilation, I would probably allow it to be shared for free by now
(four years after it was originally released)
—Chris Taylor, Saltzman, Marc (2002). "Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On
Abandonware". gamespot.com. p. 5. Archived from the original on 2006. Retrieved
December 29, 2012.
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Law
In most cases, software classed as abandonware is not in the public domain, as it has never had its original
copyright officially revoked and some company or individual may still own rights. While sharing of such software is
usually considered copyright infringement, in practice copyright holders rarely enforce their abandonware copyrights
and may allow the product to de facto lapse into the public domain to such an extent that enforcement becomes
impractical.
Rarely has any abandonware case gone to court. But it is still unlawful to distribute copies of old copyrighted
software and games, with or without compensation, in any Berne Convention signatory country.[49]
Enforcement of copyright
Old copyrights are usually left undefended. This can be due to intentional non-enforcement by owners due to
software age or obsolescence, but sometimes results from a corporate copyright holder going out of business
without explicitly transferring ownership, leaving no one aware of the right to defend the copyright.
Even if the copyright is not defended, copying of such software is still unlawful in most jurisdictions when a
copyright is still in effect. Abandonware changes hands on the assumption that the resources required to enforce
copyrights outweigh benefits a copyright holder might realize from selling software licenses. Additionally,
abandonware proponents argue that distributing software for which there is no one to defend the copyright is
morally acceptable, even where unsupported by current law. Companies that have gone out of business without
transferring their copyrights are an example of this; many hardware and software companies that developed older
systems are long since out of business and precise documentation of the copyrights may not be readily available.
Often the availability of abandonware on the Internet is related to the willingness of copyright holders to defend their
copyrights. For example, unencumbered games for Colecovision are markedly easier to find on the Internet than
unencumbered games for Mattel Intellivision in large part because there is still a company that sells Intellivision
games while no such company exists for the Colecovision.
DMCA
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) can be a problem for the preservation of old software as it
prohibits required techniques. In October 2003, the US Congress passed 4 clauses to the DMCA which allow for
reverse engineering software in case of preservation.
"3. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which
require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. ...The register has concluded that to
the extent that libraries and archives wish to make preservation copies of published software and
videogames that were distributed in formats that are (either because the physical medium on which
they were distributed is no longer in use or because the use of an obsolete operating system is
required), such activity is a noninfringing use covered by section 108(c) of the Copyright Act."
—Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access
Control Technologies (http://www.copyright.gov/1201/docs/fedreg-notice-final.pdf) (PDF)
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In November 2006 the Library of Congress approved an exemption to the DMCA that permits the cracking of
copy protection on software no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder so that they can be archived
and preserved without fear of retribution.[50][51]
US copyright law
Currently, US copyright law does not recognize the term or concept of "abandonware" while the general concept
"orphan works" is recognized (see Orphan works in the United States). There is a long held concept of
abandonment in trademark law as a direct result of the infinite term of trademark protection. Currently, a copyright
can be released into the public domain if the owner clearly does so in writing; however this formal process is not
considered abandoning, but rather releasing. Those who do not own a copyright cannot merely claim the copyright
abandoned and start using protected works without permission of the copyright holder, who could then seek legal
remedy.
Hosting and distributing copyrighted software without permission is illegal. Copyright holders, sometimes through
the Entertainment Software Association, send cease and desist letters, and some sites have shut down or removed
infringing software as a result. However, most of the Association's efforts are devoted to new games, due to those
titles possessing the greatest value.[52]
Copyright expiration
Once the copyright on a piece of software has expired, it automatically falls into public domain. Such software can
be legally distributed without restrictions. However, due to the length of copyright terms in most countries, this has
yet to happen for most software. All countries that observe the Berne Convention enforce copyright ownership for
at least 50 years after publication or the author's death. However, individual countries may choose to enforce
copyrights for longer periods. In the United States, copyright durations are determined based on authorship. For
most published works, the duration is 70 years after the author's death. However, for anonymous works, works
published under a pseudonym or works made for hire, the duration is 120 years after publication. In France,
copyright durations are 70 years after the relevant date (date of author's death or publication) for either class.
However, because of the length of copyright enforcement in most countries, it is likely that by the time a piece of
software defaults to public domain, it will have long become obsolete, irrelevant, or incompatible with any existing
hardware. Additionally, due to the relatively short commercial, as well as physical, lifespans of most digital media, it
is entirely possible that by the time the copyright expires for a piece of software, it will no longer exist in any form.
However, since the largest risk in dealing with abandonware is that of distribution, this may be mitigated somewhat
by private users (or organizations such as the Internet Archive) making private copies of such software, which
would then be legally redistributable at the time of copyright expiry.
Alternatives to software abandoning
There are alternatives for companies with a software product which faces the end-of-life instead of abandoning the
software in an unsupported state.
Availability as freeware
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Sometimes user-communities convince companies to voluntarily relinquish copyright on software, putting it into the
public domain, or re-license it as free software or as freeware. Transfer of public domain or freely licensed software
is perfectly legal, distinguishing it from abandonware which still has full copyright restrictions.
Amstrad is an example which supports emulation and free distribution of CPC and ZX Spectrum hardware ROMs
and software.[53] Borland is another example for a company who released "antique software" as freeware.[1] Smith
Engineering permits not-for-profit reproduction and distribution of Vectrex games and documentation.[54]
There are groups that lobby companies to release their software as freeware. These efforts have met with mixed
results. One example is the library of educational titles released by MECC. MECC was sold to Brøderbund, which
was sold to The Learning Company. When TLC was contacted about releasing classic MECC titles as freeware,
the documentation proving that TLC held the rights to these titles could not be located, and therefore the rights for
these titles are "in limbo" and may never be legally released.[55]
Support by source code release
The problem of missing technical support for a software can be most effectively solved when the source code
becomes available. Therefore several companies decided to release the source code specifically to allow the user
communities to provide further technical software support (bug fixes, compatibility adaptions etc.)
themselves,[56][57] e.g. by community patches or source ports to new computing platforms.
Id Software and 3D Realms are early proponents in this practice, releasing the source code for the game engines of
some older titles under a free software license (but not the actual game content, such as levels or textures). Also
Falcon 4.0's lead designer Kevin Klemmick argued in 2011 that availability of the source code of his software for
the community was a good thing:
I honestly think this [source code release] should be standard procedure for companies that decide
not to continue to support a code base.
—Kevin Klemmick, interviewed by Bertolone, Giorgio (2011-03-12). "Interview with Kevin
Klemmick - Lead Software Engineer for Falcon 4.0". Cleared-To-Engage. Archived from
the original on 2011-03-18. Retrieved 2014-08-31.
The chilling effect of drawing a possible lawsuit can discourage release of source code. Efforts to persuade IBM to
release OS/2 as open source software were ignored[58] since some of the code was co-developed by Microsoft.
Nevertheless, several notable examples of successfully opened commercial software exist, for instance, the web
browser Netscape Communicator, which was released by Netscape Communications on March 31, 1998.[59] The
development was continued under the umbrella of the Mozilla Foundation and Netscape Communicator became
the basis of several browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox.[60]
Another important example for open sourced general software is the office suite StarOffice which was released by
Sun Microsystems in October 2000 as OpenOffice.org[61] and is in continued development as LibreOffice and
Apache OpenOffice.
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There are also many examples in the video game domain: Revolution Software released their game Beneath a Steel
Sky as freeware and gave the engine's source code to the authors of ScummVM to add support for the game.
Other examples are Myth II,[62] Call to Power II[63] and Microsoft's Allegiance[57] which were released to allow
the community to continue the support.
See also
Orphaned technology
Out of print
Software archaeology
List of commercial software with available source code
List of commercial video games with available source code
List of commercial games released as freeware
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2013. Retrieved January 14, 2013. "Thanks to an extremely kind donation from an anonymous former EA/Origin
developer, the source code to the PC version of Wing Commander I is now preserved in our offline archive!
Because of our agreement with Electronic Arts, we're not allowed to post recovered source code for download--but
rest easy knowing that the C files that started it all are being kept safe for future reference. Our offline archive
contains material that has been preserved but which can't be posted, including other source code and budget data
from several of the games."
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late 1990s, we would like to mention for anyone that we have the game's source code in our offline archive. We
know it's frustrating for fans, who could do amazing things with this, to read these updates... but it's also in
everyone's best interests to remind EA that we have the raw material from which they could port Wing Commander
III to a modern computer or console. Just let us know!"
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extremely kind former EA/Origin employee has provided a copy of the Wing Commander IV source code for our
preservation efforts! We can't offer it for download at this time, but it is now preserved for future use."
35. ^ Voyager (April 8, 2007). "Ultima The Reconstruction - Fanpatches"
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were never fixed by Origin, solve platform compatibility issues, or enhance the gaming experience."
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few months after release, but the fans have just kept on going, fixing things, improving things, digging up locked
away extra content [...]"
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Informationen zu diesem kuriosen Update-Pack: Da Microsoft nie ein Servicepack für Windows 98 SE (Zweite
Ausgabe) herausgebracht hat, hat ein Programmierer aus der Türkei kurzerhand sein eigenes Servicepack für
Windows 98 SE-Anwender erstellt. Es beinhaltet alle Windows 98 SE Updates von der Windows Update-Seite und
weitere Updates sowie Verbesserungen."
39. ^ GPGNet Services Update 2 (GPGnet has been shutdown) (http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?
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alive" (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/11/19/supcom-forged-alliance-servers-shut-down-community-madeforged-alliance-forever-keeps-the-war-alive/). PC Gamer. Retrieved 2014-08-28. "The official multiplayer servers
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huge risk – you had all this money tied up in silicon in a warehouse somewhere, and so you’d be conservative in
the decisions you felt you could make, very conservative in the IPs you signed, your art direction would not
change, and so on. Now it’s the opposite extreme: we can put something up on Steam, deliver it to people all
around the world, make changes. We can take more interesting risks.[...] On Steam there’s no shelf-space
restriction. It’s great because they’re a bunch of old, orphaned games."
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acknowledgements etc?" Amstrad are happy for emulator writers to include images of our copyrighted code as
long as the (c)opyright messages are not altered and we appreciate it if the program/manual includes a note to the
effect that "Amstrad have kindly given their permission for the redistribution of their copyrighted material but
retain that copyright"."
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fanbase. Microsoft's Joel Dehlin commented that the development team has "been amazed at the level to which
some of the Allegiance fans have remained hard-core. We’re astounded at the progress that has been made at
creating new factions, hosting new servers, replacing authentication, etc. It seems that Allegiance hasn’t really
died. With that in mind, we’re releasing the Allegiance source code to the community.""
58. ^ Reed, Michael (February 7, 2008). "I'm Glad That IBM Declined to Release the OS/2 Source"
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59. ^ "NETSCAPE ANNOUNCES PLANS TO MAKE NEXT-GENERATION COMMUNICATOR SOURCE CODE
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MAKES NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR AND COMMUNICATOR 4.0 IMMEDIATELY FREE FOR ALL USERS,
SEEDING MARKET FOR ENTERPRISE AND NETCENTER BUSINESSES "
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Abandonware - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
60. ^ "MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Netscape Communications and open source developers are
celebrating the first anniversary, March 31, 1999, of the release of Netscape's browser source code to mozilla.org"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20140326215538/http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netscape-celebratesfirst-anniversary-of-open-source-software-release-to-mozillaorg-73806207.html). Netscape Communications.
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10, 2013. "[...]The organization that manages open source developers working on the next generation of
Netscape's browser and communication software. This event marked a historical milestone for the Internet as
Netscape became the first major commercial software company to open its source code, a trend that has since been
followed by several other corporations. Since the code was first published on the Internet, thousands of individuals
and organizations have downloaded it and made hundreds of contributions to the software. Mozilla.org is now
celebrating this one-year anniversary with a party Thursday night in San Francisco."
61. ^ Proffitt, Brian (October 13, 2000). "StarOffice Code Released in Largest Open Source Project"
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OpenOffice Web site at 5 a.m. PST this morning with the release of much of the source code for the upcoming 6.0
version of StarOffice. According to Sun, this release of 9 million lines of code under GPL is the beginning of the
largest open source software project ever."
62. ^ Wen, Howard (June 10, 2004). "Keeping the Myths Alive"
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2012. "[...]fans of the Myth trilogy have taken this idea a step further: they have official access to the source code
for the Myth games. Organized under the name MythDevelopers, this all-volunteer group of programmers, artists,
and other talented people devote their time to improving and supporting further development of the Myth game
series."
63. ^ Bell, John (October 1, 2009). "Opening the Source of Art"
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2012. "[...]that no further patches to the title would be forthcoming. The community was predictably upset. Instead
of giving up on the game, users decided that if Activision wasn't going to fix the bugs, they would. They wanted to
save the game by getting Activision to open the source so it could be kept alive beyond the point where Activision
lost interest. With some help from members of the development team that were active on fan forums, they were
eventually able to convince Activision to release Call to Power II's source code in October of 2003."
External links
Articles
Kauffman, Jeremiah (April 9, 2009). "Abandonwarez: the pros outweigh the cons"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware
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Abandonware - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(http://web.archive.org/web/20140329183226/http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/featur
es/160/). Archived from the original (http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/features/160/)
on March 29, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
Saltzman, Marc (2002). "Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On Abandonware"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20060130174649/http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/abandonwa
re/index.html). gamespot.com. Archived from the original
(http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/abandonware/p2_01.html) on 2006. Retrieved December
29, 2012.
Andersen, John (January 27, 2011). "Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20130422061043/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6271/where_games
_go_to_sleep_the_game_.php?print=1). Gamasutra. Archived from the original
(http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6271/where_games_go_to_sleep_the_game_.php?print=1) on
April 22, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
Bell, John (October 2009). "Opening the Source of Art"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20140330084636/http://timreview.ca/article/294). Technology Innovation
Management Review. Archived from the original (http://timreview.ca/article/294) on March 30, 2014.
Retrieved July 11, 2013.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abandonware&oldid=627649393"
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