Windows 95 as an "app" for Windows 10, Linux & Mac?

[Tripredacus]

Orphaned products are what most people consider to be abandonware. Programs or games created by companies that no longer exist, therefore there is no entity to enforce copyright.

The only way a Windows OS can be freely redistributed is if Microsoft puts the product into the public domain. OR, they go out of business and no one purchases/claims the rights to Windows, then it would be considered orphaned. Until then, the License is still enforceable on Windows 95, even if the product is no longer sold or supported.

[HarryTri]

Thanks for the clarification!

[Mcinwwl]

On 8/30/2018 at 4:06 PM, Tripredacus said:

As far as I am aware, Microsoft has not yet released Windows 95 into the public domain. As such, this software is warez as it contains a "disk image" of an installed Windows 95 OS.

Congrats to Techrepublic, Neowin and Zdnet for supporting software piracy. 

This is the same thing that initially came to my mind. This app is freely distributed and promoted by major tech portals, there are others windows editions as an program or even a website... but let anyone drop an image here or there, and the same people will claim the poor guy a pirate, plus a lawyer's chase begins. So, the question is, why the home user can't use such image legally, while M$ is not making any money from it anyway? It will be at best used by a small group of hobbyists, not interfering their main business, as these people most likely have to have some more modern computer anyway. I totally skip the case of business users, where licences can probably still be obtained via different ways... Or maybe I don't because AFAIK due to Oracle<->M$ lawsuit Windows 98 cannot be distributed by Redmond folks anyway. The Dog in the Manger, or 'Gardener's Dog', as we call it in Poland.

I'm not a lawyer myself and i don't wanna start a legal, or worse, political holy war in here, but up to my feelings there is something getting absurd with these whole copyright laws...

[Tripredacus]

As the rights holder, it is up to Microsoft to decide whether to enforce their copyright. Just because a company does not appear to do anything about people pirating software doesn't mean they can't. At any time that they feel like, they can come down on people who are distributing or hosting software (in part or in full) that they are not allowed to do so, including who disk images (as in this instance) or ISOs, updates, hotfixes, individual programs or files, etc and when they end up doing this, the person who is caught cannot claim that it was OK because nothing was done about it in the past.

I'm sure most people would agree that the idea that you'd have to wait 95 years for Windows 95 to enter into the public domain is ridiculous.

[Mijzelf]

Quote

There's no such thing as abandonware. It's a myth, just like unicorns and centaurs.

Unicorns a myth?

Edited September 5, 2018 by Mijzelf

[Mcinwwl]

On 9/5/2018 at 3:56 PM, Tripredacus said:

I'm sure most people would agree that the idea that you'd have to wait 95 years for Windows 95 to enter into the public domain is ridiculous.

Good Lord, I don't wanna think when M$ will set windows 2000 free...

I thought that it's actually 70 years, while it's 70 years after the copyright holder's death, right were owned by a person. Thanks for unintentionally correcting my 'bad knowledge' anyway

[Tripredacus]

I had to look it up also. But the page I read was quite general about it. It does not talk specifically about software, but works. The reason being that Windows 95 and Windows 10 being really the same software... it is possible to go even longer for earlier versions but it didn't cover this at all. I'm sure it is buried in the law someplace.

[jaclaz]

It is not at all harmonized worldwide, in most places it is 70 years, but it will be fun in some 27 years time (when the software will be 50) what will happen, as countries such as New Zealand and South Africa have this shorter term:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries'_copyright_lengths

Bahrain will be earlier (40 years porotection for computer software).

 

jaclaz

[Mcinwwl]

So, I looked up again, and what I initially thought is applicable in Polish law (and in Most European Union countries, as per EU directive) - 70 years since the publication, if the author is not a person (so, for example, corporations).

4 hours ago, jaclaz said:

Bahrain will be earlier (40 years porotection for computer software).

So we can host Altair Basic on Bahrain Servers? Together with source code, if we obtain it somehow?

[RanCorX2]

if abandonware doesn't exist, why is it in the dictonary?

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/abandonware

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/abandonware

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abandonware

 

[dencorso]

Bifrost, golen, snark and popess are there, too. So what?

[RanCorX2]

saying abandonware doesn't exist is just ignorence. boo hoo..piracy

if everything was illegal, no one would be selling old copies of windows on ebay etc.

anti piracy people tick me off with their "i'm a good person, i don't pirate anything" bs.

technically, we all pirate stuff, as piracy is described as using / copying other peoples work, happens all the times and is not limited to computer software.

 

example;

i see a good picture somewhere and reproduce it for my enjoyment

i tape something off the radio

i tape something off the tv

oh no p i r a c y dun dun daaaaa....

 

now if i was to steal plans for something and market it for my own gain, that would be bad.

 

making something useful that hurts no one and is not for personal gain is fine in my books.

 

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by RanCorX2

[dencorso]

1 hour ago, RanCorX2 said:

making something useful that hurts no one and is not for personal gain is fine in my books.

It may be. However, when you 1st enrolled as a member at MSFN, you agreed to abide by our rules. That means that, according to Rule #1, abandonware does not exist, and in case it did, you have agreed not to distribute nor to proselytize for it in here. 

[Mcinwwl]

9 hours ago, RanCorX2 said:

saying abandonware doesn't exist is just ignorence. boo hoo..piracy

Or, to be precise, abandonware exist as a word, a colloquial term, with more-or-less agreed upon definition, but up to my knowledge, abandonware does not exist as a legal term. In this case, we are not speaking of 'piracy', which is also broad and colloquial, but copyright infringement.

[jaclaz]

1 hour ago, Mcinwwl said:

Or, to be precise, abandonware exist as a word, a colloquial term, with more-or-less agreed upon definition, but up to my knowledge, abandonware does not exist as a legal term. In this case, we are not speaking of 'piracy', which is also broad and colloquial, but copyright infringement.

It is more complex than that, there are six  different possible acts that may (or may not ) be legal:
1) circumventing any copy protection of the original
2) actually copying the original
3) distributing the illegally made copy(ies)
4) be in possession of such illegal copy(ies)
5) use false credentials or authorizations or however circumventing any install protection/authentication method
6) using such counterfeited software

And now, for really NO apparent reason:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110611083541/http://www.funnymotivationalposters.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Piracy.jpg

jaclaz