OT: Abandoned Software Site

[Fairlight]

Yo, homey, in case you don' be listenin', Kenneth Brody done said:
> 
> Just remember that "no longer selling" does not imply "abandoned".  I
> would recommend investigating this further before downloading software
> which may still be under copyright protection.  Somehow I doubt that
> Microsoft has "abandoned" Win95 or NT4 and made them free for download.

I'm sure Borland, Firaxis, Adobe, and a few other places would have more
than a few words to say about it--through an attorney.

AutoCAD being on there is a hoot--at one point I seem to remember them
going to a dongle system, they were so paranoid about piracy.

Even -if- it were legal, I wouldn't trust it to be virus/trojan-free.
Couldn't get me to put something like that near a system.

As it is, Ken's absolutely right.  There is software out there for the
Apple ][e, a system that pretty much has been declared dead more times than
Lazarus despite the fact I know of at least 10 working units just through
friends, that runs under the emulator that's written for linux.  Actually,
I know the guy that wrote the emulator.  A lot of people in circles like
that seem to think that, whether the publisher or developer went out of
business or not, if it's not being released or made available anymore it's
free game.  It's not.  It's most definitely not.  -Someone-, somewhere,
holds the rights to that software, unless it was -explicitly- released into
the public domain.  I saw so many titles just getting through A-E that I
know would be hotly contested, it boggles the mind.
  
Both illegal and potentially technically dangerous.  Not a good combo.  And
it's not like it's not an -ideal- vector for installing malware, either.
One of the best social engineering situations you could ask for, really.
It has draw, and there's no recourse.  What are you going to tell the FBI
Computer Crimes Division?  "Gee, I was uhm...well, you see...my system was
compromised when I installed this illegal software..."  Yup.  You'll get
much sympathy from them.  :)

The stuff may be clean, it may not.  I'm not saying one way or another, and
I won't touch the stuff.  But don't say you weren't warned of the potential
exposure.

mark->