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Can I legitimately do this?

MotionMan

MotionMan

Lifer
There are two games that I use to play on my old Mac SE in the mid-to-late 80's that I would love to play again; Sub Battle Simulator and Deja Vu.

Is there a legit way for me to download these games now (25+/- years later), or would that still be piracy?

If it is legit, where is the best place to obtain these games? (I wonder if they will run on OSX?)

MotionMan
 
Deja Vu was released on the Game Boy color, and may still be available that way (if you have a Game Boy or Game Boy Advanced.)
 
Some very old games like that are available from "abandonware" sites, but there are a few moral guardians who troll those sites telling everyone that downloading old games for free instead of sending money to their now-nonexistent publishers is stealing.

I think they're talking out of their ass but I don't know what the rules are here at AT with regards to abandonware.
 
I would have a hard time calling downloading a game that is no longer available for purchase "piracy", but that's just me. It's certainly a gray area.
 
I'm strongly against piracy but when it comes to old old games like these that are nearly impossible to find anymore I say go ahead and download it.
 
KaOTiK said:
I'm strongly against piracy but when it comes to old old games like these that are nearly impossible to find anymore I say go ahead and download it.
Click to expand...

I googled the games to try to find a way to purchase them, and all I could find were abandonware sites. Although I wouldn't trust a download from any of those sites to not contain a trojan horse, or other sort of malware.
 
MotionMan said:
There are two games that I use to play on my old Mac SE in the mid-to-late 80's that I would love to play again; Sub Battle Simulator and Deja Vu.

Is there a legit way for me to download these games now (25+/- years later), or would that still be piracy?

If it is legit, where is the best place to obtain these games? (I wonder if they will run on OSX?)

MotionMan
Click to expand...

Hey, you're the lawyer, you tell us 😛

With games that old there's no one to bring up a case against you. So it's like a tree falling in the forest.
 
JTsyo said:
Hey, you're the lawyer, you tell us 😛

With games that old there's no one to bring up a case against you. So it's like a tree falling in the forest.
Click to expand...

Not my field of law, but that is what I figured.

However, it looks like it is an incredible pain in the butt to do on the newer computers. I may need to pick up an old Mac just for my style of "gaming". 😉

MotionMan
 
rcpratt said:
I would have a hard time calling downloading a game that is no longer available for purchase "piracy", but that's just me. It's certainly a gray area.
Click to expand...

It's still outright copyright infringement, but as has been posted already, no one is likely to prosecute you for it.
 
I think it's fine if the company does not even exist to take your money anymore. but why don't you see if some company released them as freeware by now. I wonder if there's a law that says patten for games expire after X years or something. maybe they do.
 
MotionMan said:
There are two games that I use to play on my old Mac SE in the mid-to-late 80's that I would love to play again; Sub Battle Simulator and Deja Vu.

Is there a legit way for me to download these games now (25+/- years later), or would that still be piracy?

If it is legit, where is the best place to obtain these games? (I wonder if they will run on OSX?)

MotionMan
Click to expand...

<------------------IP Attorney

Looks like your question has been answered, but if you want my 2c as an IP attorney here it is.

Technically, it is probably still piracy. Per the copyright office's records, a registered copyright is still in place on Sub Battle Simulator. As best I can tell, a copyright was also registered for Deja Vu (there are thousands of "Deja Vu" copyrights). Since the term of many copyrights is "life of the author + 70 years), it is very likely that the copyrights over both works remain in force. Thus, copying the game would probably still be considered piracy.

Whether anyone would care is another issue. The copyrights might still exist, but the copyright owner(s) might have long sinced passed away or transferred the rights to someone who just doesn't care to maintain those rights.
 
If the copyright owners showed up, I would be happy to pay for copies (again) if they would work on something I own.

MotionMan
 
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