Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-28 Thread Robert Riebisch
Michael Robinson wrote: I could also complain that Microsoft ... ... doesn't have a right to sue people over it. Could you please explain this strange POV? MS-DOS to my knowledge never asked for an installation code and it is not marked in any way as copy XYZ. That's correct, but it

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-28 Thread Marco Antonio Achury Palma
Simply put: User: user Organization: Unknow 2009/4/28, Robert Riebisch r...@bttr-software.de: Michael Robinson wrote: I could also complain that Microsoft ... ... doesn't have a right to sue people over it. Could you please explain this strange POV? MS-DOS to my knowledge never asked

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-26 Thread Michael Robinson
MS-DOS and Windows 3.x are clearly abandonware. If I want to use this abandonware, am I suddenly breaking the law? Not suddenly. It is and was breaking the law. Of course you can hope that MS is too busy hunting people who steal Vista, but you cannot just say that stealing MS DOS is

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-25 Thread Eric Auer
Hi Michael, How about games made for the Tandy Color Computer 3 by Diecom Products? That company is now defunct and has been for a very long time. You can download disk images of Guantlet II. Is that really illegal? As the company is defunct, it is unlikely that they will sue you. But

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-20 Thread David C. Kerber
-Original Message- From: Michael Robinson [mailto:plu...@robinson-west.com] Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 1:48 AM To: freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site... But just to say the last word about this thread: please avoid warez

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-19 Thread Blair Campbell
Downloading commercial software that you own a copy of for personal use is not illegal.  Downloading old commercial software that isn't sold anymore which the author doesn't care about is not illegal. To be illegal, the owner of the intellectual property has to raise suit and why would they

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-19 Thread Michael Robinson
Speaking of abandonware, all the Nintendo games for the original 8 bit system fit that description now. Should anyone distribute an emulator to run the old games on PC's? Should anyone distribute instructions on how to get a rom image of an old game so a person can play it on his/her PC?

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-19 Thread Bernd Blaauw
Michael Robinson schreef: Downloading commercial software that you own a copy of for personal use is not illegal. Downloading old commercial software that isn't I'm not even sure this is allowed. A lot of software was distributed on physical media, of which you were allowed to make a

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-19 Thread Michael Robinson
On Sat, 2009-04-18 at 22:59 -0700, Blair Campbell wrote: Downloading commercial software that you own a copy of for personal use is not illegal. Downloading old commercial software that isn't sold anymore which the author doesn't care about is not illegal. To be illegal, the owner of the

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-19 Thread Bernd Blaauw
Michael Robinson schreef: Speaking of abandonware, all the Nintendo games for the original 8 bit system fit that description now. Should anyone distribute what is the definition of abandonware anyway? and why would it be legal if it did fit the description? to my knowledge Nintendo is

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-19 Thread Travis Siegel
Copyright and abandon stuff are separate issues. It's certainly possible that software is abandon, and that nobody will come after you for using it. That does *not* however, mean the copyright on that software has been invalidated. If the copyright holder (whoever that may be) decided to

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-19 Thread Michael Robinson
Use without author's permission is not legal, selling without author's permission is not legal (unless your local law allows otherwise), and making a profit of something gets you in court quite fast indeed. Bernd The GPL is an exception, it gives you permission to use the software it

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-19 Thread Travis Siegel
On Apr 19, 2009, at 1:34 AM, Michael Robinson wrote: Anything from the 90's or earlier qualifies as ancient software. In the software world, anything that is 3 years old can be considered ancient. Commercial DOS software hasn't been supported since the 90's. This statement is patently

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-19 Thread Blair Campbell
On a side note, I could care less whether or not people use illegal copies of software on FreeDOS; that's a personal choice.  But don't try to force your opinion on other people. You mean the way you are trying to force your opinion on everyone? No I am not. I am saying everyone, make up

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-18 Thread Aitor Santamaría
Hello, 2009/4/13 Michael Robinson plu...@robinson-west.com: know of.  Technically, if the author of a proprietary program doesn't care about it anymore, sharing it isn't a legal problem. That is plain wrong. Many old games are back-to-life thanks to mobile phones, and it just evidences that

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-18 Thread Michael Robinson
But just to say the last word about this thread: please avoid warez, sources and links to any other illegal activities. Thanks. Aitor Downloading commercial software that you own a copy of for personal use is not illegal. Downloading old commercial software that isn't sold anymore which

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-12 Thread Jim Hall
If you own a computer that had MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 on it at one point, but your install media are fried, try this abandonware site. http://vetusware.com I worry about the legality of downloading from this site, but technically the software they are allowing people to download is

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-12 Thread Michael Robinson
On Sun, 2009-04-12 at 20:13 -0500, Jim Hall wrote: If you own a computer that had MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 on it at one point, but your install media are fried, try this abandonware site. http://vetusware.com I worry about the legality of downloading from this site, but

[Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-10 Thread Michael Robinson
If you own a computer that had MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 on it at one point, but your install media are fried, try this abandonware site. http://vetusware.com I worry about the legality of downloading from this site, but technically the software they are allowing people to download is

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-10 Thread Bonnie Dalzell
On Fri, 10 Apr 2009, Michael Robinson wrote: If you own a computer that had MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 on it at one point, but your install media are fried, try this abandonware site. http://vetusware.com I worry about the legality of downloading from this site, but technically the

Re: [Freedos-user] Abandonware site...

2009-04-10 Thread Adam Norton
If you own a computer that had MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 on it at one point, but your install media are fried, try this abandonware site. Regardless of the age of the product and the ownership, if one has the orig media there shouldn't be a problem. At least thats what I think, :) usul