Abandonware: Ethics and Essentials
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Technically, no, abandonware is not legal. On the other hand though, yes, it is. Except there are some cases when it definitely is legal, or is certainly illegal. Basically, the legality of abandonware varies. To first get to grips with abandonware and understand the ethics of this whole miasmic mess it's important to realise what qualifies a game as abandonware. While abandonware is generally just taken to mean an old game that can be downloaded for free, it actually isn't that simple there are a few different types of abandonware games.
Firstly, a game can be labelled as abandonware if it's so old that a company no longer supports or sells the game in anyway but the license-holder is still viable. An example of this might be an old game like Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, one of Lucasarts' first graphical adventures. You can't buy Zak McKraken anywhere anymore, except maybe eBay, and it isn't supported by Lucasarts in anyway because it's so old and outdated.
In this case, yes, abandonware is illegal because while you couldn't actually go out and buy the game even if you wanted to, the copyright is still owned by Lucasarts. Lucasarts might choose to make the game available for free (making it freeware), but probably not. If you download it, it's technically piracy.
