Commercial software unsupported but still owned by a viable company The availability of the software depends … See more

If a software product reaches end-of-life and becomes abandonware, users are confronted with several potential problems: missing purchase availability (besides used software) and missing technical support, e.g. compa… See more

As response to the missing availability of abandonware, people have distributed old software since shortly after the beginning of personal computing, but the activity remained low-key until the advent of the Internet. … See more

Proponents of abandonware preservation argue that it is more ethical to make copies of such software than new software that still sells. Those ignorant of copyright law have incorrectly taken this to mean that abandonwa… See more

In most cases, software classed as abandonware is not in the public domain, as it has never had its original copyright officially revoked and some company or individual may still own rights. While sharing of s… See more

There are alternatives for companies with a software product which faces the end-of-life instead of abandoning the software in an unsupported state.
Some user-communities convince companies … See more

• List of commercial games released as freeware
• List of commercial software with available source code
• List of commercial video games with available source code… See more