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Odd question but is old software still copyrighted? I don't know how it works.

jimmytheman

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I'd be curious if REALLY old software / shareware etc., is it still copyrighted or freely available? They use to call illegal software "warez" back in the day. But are "warez" still "warez"?

Does it stop or run out at some point? I guess I'm just having trouble finding software and was curious of the legality of downloading old games and such. Want to respect all copyrights.
 
Patents are complicated and center on "novelty". Pre-1994, the term was 17 years; currently it's 20. I remember when there was a kerfuffle when the first algorithms were patented. (e.g. LZW compression, as well as RSA encryption). Copyright violation is a criminal offense in the US; patent violation is a civil matter. There are many other differences.
 
You would have to ask a lawyer about what is illegal or not, and there are none of those here.

One slight clarification though, "warez" typically refers to software that is still sold and/or supported. Once support runs out, it is considered "abandonware". So programs that were once warez have grown in to abandonware. But that is subjective, and neither of those terms mean anything to lawyers.
 
Does 'abandonware' have any legal status? In my thinking if it was once copyrighted it still is.
 
Some government and academic software was public domain from creation and thus, if you can find a copy, can be legally copied to your heart's content. Unfortunately, in many cases, it would cost more to track down the copyright status than it would be to hire a staff to write new software inspired by the old software.
 
I'd be curious if REALLY old software / shareware etc., is it still copyrighted or freely available? They use to call illegal software "warez" back in the day. But are "warez" still "warez"?
You are mixing up a few things here. As for copyright, this has been answered. You won't see copyright running out on any modern stuff, as you are not getting old enough to see it happen. 70 years are minimun and only, if the copyright is not taken over by someone (e.g. bought by a company).

"copyrighted" and "freely available" however have no direct connection. Software that is or was freely available is still copyrighted. Shareware and Freeware is freely available, but that doesn't mean there's no copyright on it. It's the copyright owner who defines whether or not something is freely available or must be bought.

One exception is Public Domain, which is software the author does not claim any copyright on.
 
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Does 'abandonware' have any legal status? In my thinking if it was once copyrighted it still is.

"Abandonware" is a slang term that has no legal status.

To the OP: US copyright law, which Chuck linked to earlier, has Fair Use provisions for educational use, research, and commentary. Since using very old software (30+ years and older) falls under that category, you are generally within your rights if you install copies of old software on your vintage systems.

You wrote "Want to respect all copyrights". In today's vintage computer hobby, that's quite impractical. If you adhere strictly to the copyrights and licensing terms of 30+-year-old software, the only software you could run on your vintage system would be whatever software it came with when originally purchased.
 
If you adhere strictly to the copyrights and licensing terms of 30+-year-old software, the only software you could run on your vintage system would be whatever software it came with when originally purchased.
That's an odd statement. You can run whatever software you legally own. You can not run software the system came with, unless you own that, too. It's a common misbelief that you are e.g. allowed to copy Workbench 1.2 to run on your Amiga 500 because the Amiga 500 came with it anyway. That's not how copyright works. The English word "copyright" is actually very precise here in that it literally means "the person or company that has the rights to produce copies".
 
Since all A500s came with an operating system, why would the owner of an A500 not automatically own the operating system that came with their A500 as well?
 
You never own the software, you do own a license to use the software as long as you follow the terms and conditions set forth in the license.

I understand that well. My question for Timo was that most operating system licenses clearly grant the user the ability to use (and make copies of) the software for use with the original system they came with. If the system is transferred to a new owner, those licenses transfer as well. Timo's statement "It's a common misbelief that you are e.g. allowed to copy Workbench 1.2 to run on your Amiga 500 because the Amiga 500 came with it anyway." is what I was challenging, since any transfer of the A500 would have transferred the license to use workbench from the old owner to the new owner. (Unless there was a universe where A500s were sold without Workbench...)
 
Yeah, in the US it's still copyrighted for decades after the death of the author, regardless of orphan status. Our copyright law is out of control (originally it was 12 or 14 years iirc, similar to patents). Personally, I don't think the fair use argument would hold up in court, because it pertains to excerpts and parody, not use as a whole as-is. But IANAL.

But realistically, if the work is abandoned, nobody is going to enforce the copyright, so whatever. Our copyright law is stupidly out of control, so just do it.
 
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