I'll reply to some contentions here.
First the museum bit. A museum is not a person that charges money in order to see a single painting. The people are paying for the guarding and preservation of the arts, not for profit.

About the Martin Luther King part: you just made my point all the more stronger. Isn't it outrageous that "I have a dream" is copyrighted? Shouldn't it be for everybody? Isn't it a part of every American's history?

Old games, as I see it are like art. When the artist makes his work public, he expects a period of revenue, and that's it. It is not right in my opinion to withhold art from the public for decades. If they want a modest fee for keeping the games up to date, I'll be all for it, but when most games here cost more than year old AAA games that are on sale, it just seems like madness to me. If you were an artist, wouldn't you like for people to be able to enjoy your work freely after it was published for enough time?

I just think the laws are horrible. I absolutely love old games, and I feel completely ripped off. I have to pay a lot of money to people who didn't have anything to do with making the games. It bugs me to no end.
So I have either to agree and pay, or not agree and steal or not play at all.
I think they are worth the money, but it is just wrong. You may think a medicine is worth thousands of dollars to you, but it still doesn't make it right to charge that. I'm not supporting the people who developed the game by paying. I'm not even paying for any real maintenance. I'm paying to people who did not have anything to do with the game, and to people who made a deal with them and just added a Dosbox with a shortcut and a few wallpapers and such.
I want to play 10-20 year old games without paying outrageous sums or being a criminal. Is this too much to ask?
I'll be satisfied even if there were competition, but this is a monopoly.
I won't be supporting them, I'd be supporting a monopoly on art. I would be all for preservation, but this is ripping off people because they can't get the games legally anywhere else.

No, abandonware is not legal in the US. What that ruling means is that if you already legally own a copy of that software, you are allowed to bypass the existing protections in order for you to personally archive it. It does not give you the right to distribute that to anyone and everyone you choose to, nor does it give anyone else the right to download a copy of it. The DMCA is not even the issue here, the major issue with abandonware is copyright, which is covered internationally by the Berne Convention and states that copyright is valid for the life of the creator plus 50 years, regardless of whether or not that work is being marketed.

Some abandonware sites like Abandonia are "ethical" abandonware sites and they do the right thing when a game does become available legally again or when a rights holder issues a takedown notice, but that does not change the fact that what they are doing is textbook illegal in the first place. We can all agree that the preservation of gaming history is a good thing, but don't kid yourself, the way it is currently being preserved through abandonware download sites is simple software piracy. Until someone comes up with a better solution, it's really all we've got.

Actually, the game has been legally available through places like E-Bay and Amazon for years... if you are willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for a single copy. $10 or $100, which is actually a rip-off? Besides, how do you expect people to legally get this game without paying for it? It is not available as freeware at all and never has been, so the only only way to get it at all is to buy it. It would be nice if art was free for all, but games are more than just art, they are also a business. If you can't accept that, you picked the wrong hobby.

I have collected and sold games for a couple of decades now , I can tell you that I have sold boxed copies of System Shock 2 for $160 ... so GOG releasing it for $10 is amazing ...ss2 and Looking Glass are some of the most revered entities in gaming ..of course anyone can download or these days stream games for free but increasing numbers of gamers are chosing not to , they support the creators of these games and in a way thank them for their efforts , the more ss2 that sells , the higher the chance that someone will daringly rescue Warren Spector and the Looking Glass crew from Epic Fail Mickey Mouse duty and get them working on System Shock 3 .. kudos to GOG ..now could we have Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri please

You're paying a few bucks to the people who busted their ass to make it available again. Why is that such an issue?

Of course you do not have to agree, I think I have made every point I wanted to make, so if you don't agree now, you'll probably never will.
I knew that the idea would not be popular, but I wanted to know if I am the only one who feels this way. It would have been nice if some of the people who replied were polite, but I got my answer nonetheless.

I have the disk from the first release. But it has been always on my wishlist since I discovered GOG.

The reasons - this game is a masterpiece and it was getting harder and harder to get it working with changes of hardware and operating systems that inevitably were implemented as time goes by.

For me the price that is asked on the release date on GOG is a steal.

First it works like a dream out of the "box" - in this case the first download. Glorious Full HD resolution on my new 16:9 27 '' display. All movies work from the start.

For a person that has waited about 10 years to get it play without the frustration that you get if you manage to have one thing right but at the next moment something has to be sacrificed, this price is more than fair.
Do not get me wrong, I am not computer illiterate but in this age and time you have less and less time to meddle with settings, patches etc.

I very much liked the comparison with Museum. Yes that is the perfect motto for GOG - this is a place for connoisseurs and collectors - people that love their memories and can pick the pearl out of the ashes of time.

Any price is right - this is the price you are prepared to pay if you wish to enjoy something.

First of all, you're being amazingly defensive, because no one was even close to impoliteness in this thread. Everyone was civil. So, please, don't act like you were stoned or lynched by a mob.

Secondly, what is there to agree or disagree, anyway? That copyright laws have a billion horrible issues? Ok, I agree with you. The thing is, none of those issues apply to this game. And I find 10 bucks pretty good value. I get a DRM free, legal, working version of the game.

I believe that they released the first game for download on their forums. Not the second one.

Just don't buy it then. Add me to the list of people who still has a working, original disk copy but bought it instantly. I even had it installed and completely patched up.

There is some debate about that. There is a version known as System Shock Portable, but the legality of it is grey at best. It is not included on any reputable listing of legal freeware

This is how I see GOG though. They preserve, archive and maintain these old games for modern computers. I pay for that service more than I pay for the copyright or game files.

I support abadonware as I believe games are culturally important art that should not be lost due to copyright shennanigans. I still support buying a game on GOG or Steam when available and properly supported and archived. If I wanted to play NOLF tomorrow I would "pirate" it due to lack of other real options, but I would rather buy a supported and maintained version on GOG.

Well said.

So, by your rationale, once a movie is a certain age, it should be free? People invested in making a game financially, emotionally, creatively and with sheer graft. There's not a statute of limitations on the value of art and there never should be. You're not entitled to it for free and GOG has invested in getting this remastered version up and running.

$10 for a classic game that's been out of print for a long time is pretty reasonable when it's optimised for Windows 7.

Get on Ebay and tell us what you'll pay for a non patched game disc! I can't tell if your ignorant or cheap.