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Could someone shed some light on what's the legality of publishing emulated abandonware? I remember not too long ago Half-Life 2's web port got posted, is that
by xpct 20d ago
Could someone shed some light on what's the legality of publishing emulated abandonware? I remember not too long ago Half-Life 2's web port got posted, is that still online?
- avaer 20d agoIt's not legal. And in any case it's not abandonware, they're still actively selling these games (maybe not these exact versions, but I doubt a court would see that as a distinction with a difference).
- tgsovlerkhgsel 20d agoUnless they've gotten a license to do it, it's a crystal clear copyright violation, generally done under the assumption/hope that an entity that has abandoned selling the game has also abandoned caring about enforcing its copyrights against such projects.
- lindkvis 20d agoCrystal clear illegal. And AFAIK Rockstar can be litigious.
- 93po 20d agoThe HL2 web port got DMCA'd pretty fast and the group behind it hasn't tried to rehost it
- xpct 20d agoI do feel like posting links to these on HN is a type of soft distribution.
- VCFundedGenYer 20d agoObjectively illegal. I'm unsure why this was even posted here.
- xpct 20d agoProbably because emulators is one of the subjects discussed on this site. Not sure how I feel about it linking to a public web artifact.