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From the site in question:
I think I'll take their word on the legality of their content.
What is Abandonware?
Abandonware, which stands for "abandoned software", is a term that refers to software, but most often computer games, which the manufacturer and the owner ceased to support, and sell for the most part. This means that such game can never be officialy bought anywhere, and generally (even if you buy second-hand) doesn't work on commercial and accessible hardware or operating system. Such games, of course, are not freely available, until the owner officialy releases the game and it's granted freeware status. Abandonware as such is illegal, and essentialy means only more benevolent access of the original owner to his original software, which usually only fans are able to run successfully.
Recently howewer, a number of excellent freeware projects like DOSBox or ScummVM appeared, which make the playing of old games very comfortable.
An organization named ESA also came into being, to bring together the owners of copyrights and watches the so-called copyright infringement, such as the free distribution of Abandonware. Although lately several development companies (e.g. LucasArts) cancelled their membership in the organization - perhaps the ESA charges far exceeded the profits from won court processes, or official sales of old games. ;-)
Abandonware, which stands for "abandoned software", is a term that refers to software, but most often computer games, which the manufacturer and the owner ceased to support, and sell for the most part. This means that such game can never be officialy bought anywhere, and generally (even if you buy second-hand) doesn't work on commercial and accessible hardware or operating system. Such games, of course, are not freely available, until the owner officialy releases the game and it's granted freeware status. Abandonware as such is illegal, and essentialy means only more benevolent access of the original owner to his original software, which usually only fans are able to run successfully.
Recently howewer, a number of excellent freeware projects like DOSBox or ScummVM appeared, which make the playing of old games very comfortable.
An organization named ESA also came into being, to bring together the owners of copyrights and watches the so-called copyright infringement, such as the free distribution of Abandonware. Although lately several development companies (e.g. LucasArts) cancelled their membership in the organization - perhaps the ESA charges far exceeded the profits from won court processes, or official sales of old games. ;-)
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