In some cases these sites had to remove past versions of software, particularly if the company producing that software still maintains it, or if later software releases introduce digital rights management, whereby old versions could be viewed as DRM circumvention. Some websites collect and offer for download old versions of shareware, freeware, and (in some cases) commercial applications. Authors may or may not make older releases available.

Shareware whose author still makes it available Finding historical versions, however, can be difficult since most shareware archives remove past versions with the release of new versions. An example of this is Digital Research's original PL/I compiler for DOS: which was considered for many years as without an owner Micro Focus, which acquired Novell, which had bought Digital Research's assets, owns this old PL/I compiler, but has a more up-to-date PL/I offering. If the rights to a software are non-recoverable in legal limbo ('orphaned work'), the software's rights can not be bought by another company, and there is no company to enforce the copyright.

Commercial software owned by a company no longer in business When no owning entity of a software exists, all activities (support, distribution, IP activities etc.) in relationship to this software have ceased. Others, such as Microsoft, do not make old versions available for free use and do not permit people to copy the software. Some companies, such as Borland, make some software available online, in a form of freeware. In many cases, the company which owns the software rights may not be that which originated it, or may not recognize their ownership. Commercial software unsupported but still owned by a viable company The availability of the software depends on the company's attitude toward the software.

The term 'abandonware' is broad, and encompasses many types of old software. 4 Arguments for and against distributionĭefinitions of 'abandoned' vary, but in general it is like any item that is abandoned – it is ignored by the owner, and as such product support and possibly copyright enforcement are also 'abandoned'.3.4 Re-releases by digital distribution.

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