Abandonware
( " Left " abandon English " give up" ) as abandonware is called (most commercially developed ) software, which no longer sells a manufacturer and for which he offers no technical support more. There is thus, for example, no way to get directly from the manufacturer replacement for your damaged disk or to obtain service from the manufacturer to complete.
Abandonware can be seen as equivalent to the orphaned blocks for digital works.
- 4.1 Software Support by the user community
- 4.2 Releasing the source code
- 5.1 Berne Convention
- 5.2 Germany
- 5.3 USA
SYMPTOMS
The product life cycle of a software sees often the case that the program reaches its end of life, from a certain point. This typically both the ( commercial ) sales as well as a further support services. Typically, this happens when in a product no more revenue is expected to exceed the costs, or because the product has been superseded by a newer version of itself (planned obsolescence ). Sometimes the reason for the emergence of abandonware and the bankruptcy of a manufacturer or of the loss of rights or unclear legal relationships with one software.
A software user who wants to use discontinued software that can thus run into trouble because the product is no longer maintained, so fixed no bugs or compatibility adjustments for new hardware or operating systems are made.
If a software to abandonware, which can in extreme cases lead to loss of the original source code. An example is the closure of Sunnyvale Atari 1996 in the original source of some milestones in the history of gaming, like Asteroids or Centipede, landed on the trash and would go so lost to posterity can irrevocably.
The problems of conservation and preservation of software is exacerbated by the fact that physical digital media (floppy disks, optical data storage, hard drives ) in comparison to other media ( books, etc. ) only have short lifetimes, necessary hardware, formats and techniques quickly become obsolete, as well as by restrictive copy protection mechanisms.
Also, the lack of availability of software and the accompanying source code can be a problem for software archeology and the study of software evolution.
Species
The term " abandonware " is widely used for multiple types of software which is no longer sold and supported:
- ( commercial ) software whose rights and / or source code are at a defunct company,
- ( commercial ) software whose rights are owned by an existing company, but she has no interest in a support,
- ( commercial ) Software a further existing company, which aims to make development and support, but this may not be due to lost or missing rights,
- Open source software, which has no maintainer.
Responses to the non-availability
Abandonware websites
On the World Wide Web were founded around 1997 around the first websites that address the problem of non - availability of this software assumptions under the title " abandonware ", this software is archived and offered for download. It is bordered inspiration from the so-called " warez " sites morally insofar as, by one estimates the financial damage to manufacturers as minor and especially a archival function for the general (but also the manufacturing company itself) perceive to digital works final before the disappearance to preserve.
As the founder of the term " abandonware " is often rings ring called Peter, who founded the " Abandonware Ring" webring in February 1997. Rings ring looking websites that dealt with classic games, please contact the webmaster and formed so gradually the webring, with the central hub " abandonwarering.com " which had all the pages indexed for searching. In October 1997, the Interactive Digital Software Association warnings shipping on all sides of the abandonware ring, which led to the most were off. As an unintended side-effect (also called Streisand effect ) but this led to the formation of a second generation of abandonware websites whose number soon surpassed the original. Known and extensive Abandonwareseiten the second generation in the late 1990s have emerged, Home of the Underdogs and Abandonia.
From the beginning, the main focus of most abandonware sites was on the old computer and video games. The range extends from old game consoles like the Atari 2600 up to the computers of the early 1990s, such as the Amiga and the IBM PC.
Despite ever existing efforts within the scene to come to agreements with the software companies or to influence legislators to step out of the illegality, such plans were taken until today not in earnest, and the operators of abandonware sites thus continue to act in consciousness, to violate the copyright. Conversely, there are also quite sympathies single developer for abandonware sites because they ensure that their works can be found attention and not forgotten.
[ ... ] Personally, I think I did sites did 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 synthesis 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. "
"Is it piracy? Yeah, But sure. So what? Most of the game makers Are not living off the revenue from Those old games anymore. Most of the creative team behind All Those games have long since left the companies did published them, so there's no way the people who deserve to are quietly making royalties off them so go ahead -. ! steal this game spread the love "
"If I owned the copyright on Total Annihilation, I would probably allow it to be shared for free by now (four years after it what originally released ) "
Released by the rights holder
Sometimes, a former commercial distributed software is made later by the copyright owner non-commercial available again, partly. Than promotional campaign for a new software, in part because the user community could convince him of the need for availability (eg art or milestone character of computer games ) Games that have been released by their copyright holders for the ( mostly non-commercial ) use and dissemination, thus losing the formal status as abandonware and are - depending on -, freeware, free software, public domain or released under their own licenses. But you are still commonly found on Abandonwaresites. Examples are "Beneath a Steel Sky " or " Flight of the Amazon Queen " or Amstrad and many Borland products. For more examples, see the list of commercial games which were later released as freeware (English).
Long-term archiving initiatives
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive began in 2004, a digital archive for "Vintage Software" to create in order to obtain them for the future through long-term archiving. For this project had to be invited in order to circumvent any existing copy may an exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States. This was approved in 2003 for a period of three years. The exception was renewed in 2006 and was extended indefinitely, until there is further legislative adjustments. However, the Internet Archive, this software is not available for download because the exemption only for the sole purpose of " archival preservation of digital works " applies. However, 2013 started the Internet Archive so classic games as playable browser streaming via MESS emulation to offer, such as the Atari 2600 video game E.T. the Extra -Terrestrial.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress of the United States began approximately from 2006 to organized archiving of computer games. In September 2012, the collection included 3,000 games many platforms and 1,500 strategy guides.
KEEP
A further approach is the Keeping Emulation Environments Portable project, which seeks to achieve long -term preservation and availability via virtualized emulators. This is a co-funded by the EU EU research project ( 7th Framework Programme ). The project was first introduced by Andreas Lange (Director of the Computer Game Museum Berlin) in September 2008 and is headed by Mrs. Elisabeth Freyre of the French National Library. It is to ensure the long-term availability of digital objects of various kinds in their original context through the integration of existing and new emulators of created in a so-called emulation framework.
Filing by the fan base
There is also the rare case that a fan base is passed a Software for archival purposes, done for example in 2011 with the source code of several parts of the Wing Commander computer game series.
Computer History Museum
2012 began the Computer History Museum with the archiving of important software source code, starting with the programming language APL. In February 2013 Adobe Systems donated the Photoshop 1.0.1 source code for the collection, in November 2013 followed by Apple Inc. Apple DOS source code. The source code is provided to the public under their own non-commercial license available for download.
ICHEG
In December 2013, the SSI - founder Joel Billings gave some SSI games with source code ICHEG the Museum for archiving.
Re-release of the Digital Distribution
Since the possibilities of digital distribution from the 2000s commercial distribution and mean holding of software could be significantly cheaper, it began partially to be commercially viable to drive abandonware. A pioneer in the computer 's play area in this regard, the provider GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games ) which began in 2008 to make the legal owner of abandonware games locate to the games re-release then processed legally and technically can.
Reactions to support failure
Software support by the user community
Partial attempts the user community after the end of official support that occurs with the status of abandonware, make any necessary adjustments (eg for compatibility with new hardware or operating systems) to the software itself. However, since typically there is neither the development tools nor the source code of the software, this is a difficult and time-consuming task. Nichtsdestrotz manages some software communities have the means of debugging, reverse engineering of data and file formats as well as adjustments to the binary executable files themselves to keep up with unofficial patches to support themselves. Examples are Fallout 2, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines or even Windows 98, for further examples, see the article Unofficial Patch.
In non-PC or very early PC software is tried instead of an adjustment or porting to make do with some specially developed emulators to get a feasibility of the software. Examples include MAME, an emulator system for many arcade machines, the UAE for the Commodore Amiga home computer or DOSBox software from the DOS era.
Releasing the source code
Sometimes it is possible user communities, the manufacturer to convince the end of the support frame time of release the source code of a software, rather than allowing it to become abandonware. Thus, the user community has the opportunity to effectively take over the support itself. The difference in the release of all of the software (eg as freeware ) is often that artwork and data will not be released, but in a commercially acquired version must be present in order to obtain a working software. This source code releases happen under various licenses, partly under open source licenses, partly under their own licenses that restrict commercial use, but partly also in the public domain, allowing any use and adaptation. Well-known examples are many titles the manufacturer id Software and 3D Realms, as well as individual games like Homeworld or Myth II The great advantage of the availability of the source code is the possibility of porting to current platforms, eg Myth II on Linux or Jagged Alliance 2 on Android. For more games software for which the source code has been released, see list of commercial computer games to published source code.
An important example of a successful source - release of general software is the Internet browser Netscape Communicator, which was release on 31 March 1998 by Netscape Communications. This was handed over to the Mozilla Foundation, which developed him to this day, and forms the basis for many browsers such as for Firefox. Another example would be the office software StarOffice, which was released by Sun Microsystems in October 2000 and will be further developed as OpenOffice / LibreOffice suite to date (October 2013).
Legal
Berne Convention
In countries that have acceded to the Berne Convention, is subject to the copying of software and computer games, even if the author is a foreigner, the protection of national laws. The revised Berne Convention guarantees a minimum term of protection of at least fifty years after the death of the author ( postmortem auctoris ) addition.
Germany
In Germany the Copyright Act and, if applicable Kunsturhebergesetz are the relevant standard complexes, which, inter alia, regulate the right to reproduction and distribution of works.
USA
In the U.S., the DMCA prohibits techniques such as reverse engineering and can thus hinder the preservation of digital works there. However, in October 2003 the U.S. Congress made four additions to the DMCA happen, which, inter alia, defined the purpose of archiving as a temporary exception.
" 3 Computer programs and video games distributed in formats thathave become obsolete and require the original media or Which hardware as a condition of access. The register ... Has Concluded did to the extent libraries and archives did wish to make preservation copies of published software and video games distributed in formats thatwere did are ( Either Because The physical medium on Which theywere distributed is no longer in use or Because the use of an obsolete operating system is required), search activity is a noninfringing use covered by section 108 ( c ) of the Copyright Act. "
In November 2006, a permanent exception to the DMCA was approved for the Library of Congress of the United States, which allows bypassing of copy of software when it is no longer sold or supported by the copyright owner.