I''m looking for games that ''can'' be copied, i.e. I see loads of tetris rip offs, but I''m sure the actual tetris game is copyrighted, what actual games reside in the public domain, i.e anyone can have a go at recreating them and possibly make mooney off them?

google for "abandon ware". I think that''s exáctly what youre looking for. I''ll apreciate if somebody corrects me if I''m wrong.

Anyway you can make your own tetris and call it "Pepetrox" and sell it. I''ve read that into an article arround here. Ideas can''t copyrighted.

quote: Original post by xaxa
google for "abandon ware". I think that's exáctly what youre looking for. I'll apreciate if somebody corrects me if I'm wrong.

Abandonware is still copyrighted. However, since the games are no longer sold, copying them is not causing any losses to any company, and therefore it's barely worth them trying to enforce their copyright.

In other words, Abandonware is still technically illegal, except in a very few cases where permission to copy it freely has been expressly given.

[edited by - Sandman on March 5, 2003 7:46:28 AM]

Does anyone know of where one can find those few quality games where permission has been given to copy them?

Would it be worth it for gaming communities to petition games companies to release their 10-15-year old games for free copying? Has this been discussed before?

quote: Original post by Sandman
Abandonware is still copyrighted. However, since the games are no longer sold, copying them is not causing any losses to any company, and therefore it''s barely worth them trying to enforce their copyright.

In other words, Abandonware is still technically illegal, except in a very few cases where permission to copy it freely has been expressly given.

Thank you. I aprecciate

quote: Original post by AndyMan
Would it be worth it for gaming communities to petition games companies to release their 10-15-year old games for free copying?

It''s always worth it to try. You may not succeed, but at least you''ll know you tried and not have regrets that you didn''t.

quote: Has this been discussed before?

Not as far as I know, but there have been reports and articles of lawsuits and threats from companies over essentially abandonware when cloned or even mimicked.

Actually, I believe copyright automatically applies to any specific expression of an idea - certainly in the case of oral storytelling, any time you perform, the precise text of that performance is your copyright...

Also, even if the holder of the rights for a game has given permission for it to be distributed freely, that doesn''t give you rights to clone it.

What you have to do in order to avoid legal entanglements is to make "enough" changes to the game and be in a position to claim that you are not deliberately misleading the public into believing that it''s the same game. I''m not a legal expert, so you can''t blame me if you follow this advice and still get sued successfully for breach of copyright or whatever the legal name for plagiarism is.

Unless someone has patented the idea or ideas behind a certain game, then you should be OK borrowing ideas from games, provided you don''t produce a carbon copy.

quote: Original post by Oluseyi
Not as far as I know, but there have been reports and articles of lawsuits and threats from companies over essentially abandonware when cloned or even mimicked.

Hasbro,.... right?

quote: Original post by Crawl
Not as far as I know, but there have been reports and articles of lawsuits and threats from companies over essentially abandonware when cloned or even mimicked.
Hasbro,.... right?

Yep.

Really, what you''re looking for are GPL''d games. All I know of are NetHack and Tux Racer (it is no longer actively developed under the GPL, but when one version is GPL''d, it''s GPL''d forever).

Perhaps you can look around in sourceforge.net or freshmeat.net. Most of these games are for linux.