Um, I was on that site just yesterday. They're still very much around.
There are a great many of us out there who simply don't care that it's a crime because we realize that being a crime doesn't necessarily make something wrong. That being said, if I can buy it on GOG, I do. In several cases, I've bought the GOG version with no intention of playing it, just so I can have a definitive, legal copy.

You are not incorrect in your assesment. You are just taking a very black/white, right/wrong stance, as you are certainly free to do. But be aware that your argument will have little effect on most of us.
Who cares?

You really need to chill out, man. Find a better cause to channel your passion into. The ethics of software distribution is just sooooo unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

I don't really want to argue about it. :P This seems like a really strong issue to you, and nothing I doubt anything I say will change your mind. (However, when I wrote that I specifically had in mind how a new copy of System Shock 2 is about $400 on Amazon; I suppose one could purchase used copies there, too, however.)

I would never pay that kind of money for an old game. Lets say if GOG sold their old games for say 19.99 and 29.99 instead of 5.99 and 9.99, I would not buy any of the games because thats above what I think is a fair price for an old game, so I will look elsewhere. But in GOGs case, they were not greedy and priced their games reasonably so they have my business.

I was talking to a gamer from Poland and he told me that he could get any game for free on the internet and that most Polish gamers he knew never buy games at retail and pirate almost all their games.

This is true. But it's changing. We've got copyright law since 1994 and before that date it was legal in Poland to pirate everything, even software for companies.

Also, comparing to salaries, music/videos are much more expensive than in other countries. For example, as a cashier in Tesco you will work 1 to 2 hours to earn money for new album. In Poland the same person would have to work for 5 to 6 hours, sometimes even more.

But I have many friends who buy games, and that number is growing. It's not so bright when it comes to music though. I personally don't know anybody, who doesn't have pirated music.
I was thinking. And then I was thinking more. And I still don't find any link between marijuana and anarchy.
I can find a link between forbidding people to smoke whatever the hell they want and totalitarism, though.

In fact, in Czech Repubilc all kinds of drugs are legal (even heroin) in certain amounts. And CzR is doing fine. On the other hand, U.S. govt is wasting money on "war on drugs" and U.S. every year is one step closer to anarchy because of national debt. When your govt. won't be able to pay for Obama's social welfare, THEN you will see anarchy.

And CzR will be still fine, with all drugs legal.

i had been speaking only about legality not morality. that's why its black and white.


im just posting a flaw in your argument.

everyone has different attitude to what is expensive. for some 100 dollars might not be expensive and for others paying 2 dollars is expensive.
i will try to do that. thx you are talking about public benefits. Why should I care about public? its my life, my work. because it can be copied more easily than a house i build why anyone supposed to benefit from it without my consent?
Culture? yes. we supposed to preserve culture, encourage it. Yet if author wants to his work to be gone its his/her right to do so. Its their property to which you should have no right the same way you have no right to their cars, land etc.
Because it can be copied much easier is completely irrelevant.
You say you don't care about batshit insane creators. They worked to create something and you believe that you can take it. fuck that.

that being said there is a problem with copyright laws. They are far from perfect.

of course they would. they want free stuff without putting any work. that's not honest and fair tough.

edit: sorry. hoped the post will be merged :(

Amen to that. This topic should end after that sentence. Thank you, sir!

Well, doesn't look like this discussion is going to go any further. Feel free to carry on with your pointless rage and frustration.

He made an effort once to sell it to me. He made it go into the wild blue consumerism and demanded his share. He polluted my visual and memory sections of the brain with his awesome ideas, and now he wants them to disappear. I take special offense with that, so I take special steps to fight it.

This is not exactly true. They are not legal, the law only says (quite famously) that unless you are in possession of "a greater than small amount" of drugs, you will not be persecuted. The definition of this amount is intentionally left vague, though the police apparently has some internal guideline tables. It's a legal backdoor of sorts, nothing else. Drugs are still illegal, though the society here is quite tolerant when it comes to the light stuff.

Sorry for the off-topic, everyone keep arguing, please. For me, I don't see anything morally wrong with true abandonware, and don't care about the legality of it one bit.

thanks for claryfication. I saw once somewhere a table with drug amount that won't be prosecuted in CzR.

And I think it's fine. Prosecuting drug USERS is a bad method of fighting it, and your govt. seems to understand that.

i think no civilized country at the moment can make drugs legal. even dutchland has laws written in a way which theoretically makes drugs illegal.

Read about some international laws prohibiting legality of drugs so countries have to create weird laws to allow people to smoke MJ. Holland does that and apparently Czech too :) never knew that.

Uh, DOSBox bro. Or whatever other tweaking they may need.