This actually makes a lot of sense. If none of these companies are willing to claim ownership of the IP, then “pirating” the games has no risk… since nobody is willing to claim ownership of the IP. Well played!
Also, I’m stoked to play these games! I never did when they came out but the reviews were so good I wanted to.
ehhh i hear you, “abandonware” can be defined as “software which is no longer supported or updated”, but that is a very broad definition. I think one could also define abandonware as “software which is no longer supported or updated, and which has no clear IP owner anymore”, and I think that that is the colloquial definition for a lot of people. I think we need a new word for one of these two definitions.
Fair point. I think there needs to be a legal definition of IP’s that no longer have a claimant and therefore go public domain by default. If nobody can show ownership then nobody owns it.
This actually makes a lot of sense. If none of these companies are willing to claim ownership of the IP, then “pirating” the games has no risk… since nobody is willing to claim ownership of the IP. Well played!
Also, I’m stoked to play these games! I never did when they came out but the reviews were so good I wanted to.
The term for this is “abandonware”
Not really. There’s a lot of abandonware where the IP holders still pull out the lawyers.
ehhh i hear you, “abandonware” can be defined as “software which is no longer supported or updated”, but that is a very broad definition. I think one could also define abandonware as “software which is no longer supported or updated, and which has no clear IP owner anymore”, and I think that that is the colloquial definition for a lot of people. I think we need a new word for one of these two definitions.
I propose “orphanware” for that subset of abandonware that has no clear owner.
Consistent with the broader term “orphan work”.
Fair point. I think there needs to be a legal definition of IP’s that no longer have a claimant and therefore go public domain by default. If nobody can show ownership then nobody owns it.
lord, if only we lived in a world where things made sense…