well, whatever. the guys who hold the rights arn't doing anything with it, and in all likelyhood most of those games will never be sold again anywhere other then ebay or amazon.

It's their rights. They can do with them whatever they want. Even nothing.

From the files themselves, no one can figure out where you downloaded them unless the download location is somehow noted on the file itself. Other than that, at most, people will be able to tell when the file was downloaded but not where.

It is best not to push your luck too much, as long as you aren't downloading gigabytes of illegal games at once and stick to the older, more obscure games you can probably squeak by. But do not paint a target on yourself.

edit:
This article might be worth checking out, even if the topic is about music, it can easily apply to software:
http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/p2plegalitiesandethics/f/bustingpirates.htm

If you download, eg, an iso file, from an abandonware website the MD5 and SHA1, et al, will be the same as where you downloaded it from. I wouldn't be surprised if all abandonware sites just copied off each other. The same goes for all GOG games, as far as I know. I think everyone receives exact copies of the same game.

The safety net, I suppose, is that the rights holders probably don't have any money nor inclination to pursue a civil case.

This happens if you're setting up a hub to distribute pirated software. The same was in Politechnika Slaska, the biggest pirate hub in europe?

By the way, apart from making profit,It's also a crime to distribute. If you're downloading something from torrents, you're also uploading.

If you're downloading something from sites like Abandonia, you're rather safe. Unfortunatelly, confiscating somebody's PC is punishing before trial. In every case even related to anything with computers, the Police will most likely take your hardware.

I honestly think they deserved what they got in the end. It's just that the whole situation was horribly mishandled. Taking away computers from students on University of Technology in the middle of term is not really fair. The HDDs would suffice.
And the law here is broken. Torrenting music is illegal but downloading isn't.

Yep, it is.

It would be good if they took the pcs, technician copies the data, and they return it few days later.

But no. They like to keep them in storage for eternity.

At least they now figured out not to take the screens along....

Haha. We have here a loud murder case now, and it took prosecutor over a month to discover web browser history of the murderer ;D

If you are really uneasy about this:

https://www.ipredator.se/

It hides your IP traffic fairly well. Only if you commit a crime with the expected sentence of 2 and a half years they will give out the contact data. Oh, and the Swedish military intelligence gets full access. But if that is an issue, you really have other problems.

well, why exactly DOESNT the government come in and shut down these abandonware sites? too much trouble for not big enough of a crime?
heck, i've heard of some of the game developers for these old games saying there games aren't going to be sold any more, and they'd rather have people play them then go into obscurity!
and the governemnts reason for not wanting to pursue a criminal case is...

Because its not really a criminal act unless you try to make money off it, i.e. sell the abandonware without having the rights to. Just allowing free downloads is a civil violation, which leaves you open to a lawsuit, but not necessarily criminal prosecution.

actually the government may persecute someone who is distributing or downloading files illegally even if they don't make any money off it. congress added the law after some guy, i can't remeber his name...venci?...anyways this guy was arrested for illegal file sharing but they couldn't prosecute him due to his not making a profit, so congress passed a law saying the maximum penelty for criminal cases of filesharing is 1 year in prison, and 100,000 fine. once again, they will probably go after distributers instead of individual downloaders, and frankly its absurd that they would care at all about abandonware unless theres money in it. but still. it's possible.

Where are you getting your legal info? The only laws that apply here in the US are Title 17 (the basic copyright law), the DMCA and the No Electronic Theft Act, all of which together define criminal infringement as willfully ignoring copyright with the intent of making a profit. All other types of infringement are only subject to civil action, not criminal. This is why when groups like the RIAA go after file sharers, they sue them, not send the FBI kicking down their door. File sharers aren't actually doing anything criminal. What they do is illegal, but not criminal (yes, there is a difference).