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[Solved] Is it illegal to torrent discontinued games

Forum Games General : Games General Discussions - [Solved] Is it illegal to torrent discontinued games

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Best answer from purplerat.

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Anonymous   10-16-2009 at 12:28:27 AM

There is a game that i have been looking around to buy, or electronically download, i could not find it anywhere and then found out it is discontinued. Would it be illegal to torrent it? The company wouldnt lose money from it since its no longer sold.

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Best answer from purplerat
Some software is considered abandonware and is presumably legal to download. But in general the amount of time it takes for a copyright to "ware off" so to speak is a lot longer than any software would be relevant for. Personally though I don't feel too bad about downloading a copy of a piece of software that can't be bought or at least can not be bought via retail. Just don't do anything stupid with it and you should be ok as far as legal prosecution goes.
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LePhuronn   10-16-2009 at 01:59:04 AM

yes - the game may not be on sale any more but the publisher will still retain ownership and copyright

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jaydeejohn   10-16-2009 at 05:22:58 AM

Maybe youll find it here, and its legal too
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=49979

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sgtmattbaker   10-16-2009 at 08:42:20 AM

Yes it is. It is quite silly to not sell a game but to also not let anyone play it though. If a game isn't available through retail and has been that way for 5 years it should be free. The owner could still say that other people couldn't take it and make money off of it but maybe that would get them to quit nickel and dime-ing us with downloadable versions of 10 year old games. Didn't iD open source Doom (1) and Quake (1)?


Message edited by sgtmattbaker on 10-16-2009 at 08:43:49 AM
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purplerat   10-16-2009 at 06:11:49 PM
Best answer

Some software is considered abandonware and is presumably legal to download. But in general the amount of time it takes for a copyright to "ware off" so to speak is a lot longer than any software would be relevant for. Personally though I don't feel too bad about downloading a copy of a piece of software that can't be bought or at least can not be bought via retail. Just don't do anything stupid with it and you should be ok as far as legal prosecution goes.

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