A legal question

[wiggins]

Is downloading an playing these old dos games for free illlegal? Here's the website i found: http://www.dosgames.com/
Thanks!
God bless you all,
Jonathan

[shooraijin]

It's much the same situation as people using ROMs or disk images for long-obsolete computers on emulators.

While functionally the software is likely long past profitability, this is not guaranteed -- notice how much money Atari and the new Intellivision are making off their old videogame properties by remarketing them and issuing new hardware -- and because the copyright doesn't evapourate even if it's no longer sold, making money or defended, strictly speaking, their use is illegal.

One exception to this rule, which I believe is perfectly reasonable under copyright fair use, is to keep multiple versions. I have a lot of Commodore 64 games, and I own the originals. However, on my Macintosh, I have disk images of them too. Nevertheless, I originally owned the games to start with, and I still possess the originals, even though sometimes it's more convenient to play them under emulation. (EDIT: No matter what idiocy like the DMCA may say, you have always had the right to make private copies for your own personal use as long as they are not distributed under most readings of fair use rights. This would still authorize backup copies for any purpose, be it preservation or convenience.)

[Mithrandir]

... The exception being Austratilian version of the DMCA. If you are in that geographic region, you DO NOT have the above right.

Demo - INAL.

[wiggins]

Thanks!