Baller move from the devs. I wish we lived in a world where the source code of older games were all released and freely available for non-commercial uses.
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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I really wish games would just become free to download after it's abandoned. You don't see many movies or CDs that just disappear. But games do. A lot come back, but a lot of them just don't ever get re-released.
There are a few PS1 games that I would happily purchase on my PS5. But if it's not available, then I should be able to legally and conveniently emulate on my phone or computer.
I think legally you can download such software as it becomes abandonware. It is a grey area but there's also legal precedence set.
- in some countries
No, this is not legal in most countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_copyright_treaties
Copyright doesn't cover possession just production and distribution. You can download anything copyrighted just fine, it's just usually illegal to distribute such things with the idea that you're eliminating potential sales.
This is incorrect. Copying for your own use is the most common case of piracy.
I think the grey area is that their is either no single one rights holder, so who's going to sue you, especially for a game they may not be able to use themselves. Or for defunct companies that hold the rights but are out of business.
Meaning it's grey in that it's too much of a hassle or not realistic to sue you for infringement.
I'm also talking out of my ass too, so please correct me.
Just being able to download them for free doesn't get you very far though. What you really need is the source code and assets and build process so the first minor compatibility bug doesn't make it unusable.
for non-commercial uses
Why not GPL like id Software did when they still were cool.
Yeah, I guess that would be the ideal. But starting with just non-commercial use is already way better than what we have today. People could use those resources to learn how to make games, and also to preserve videogames for the future.