Please make a list of what you think is inappropriate for this site, and I will review it. I've been very busy lately.

Just because a publisher provides updates doesn't make it warez.

Warez is stuff like this:

[EDIT: Removed, please don't link]

If its not still sold and its over 2 version points old, then its not warez
Apple still provides updates for Mac os 7, but its here, and it is not warez.

Since "abandonware" is an imaginary concept, the real test of whether a program should be posted here is the likelihood that a company will get angry and try to have it removed from the site.

So how would MakeMusic feel about their program being posted here?

I would have to agree with watchsmart. When the Home of the Underdogs was still around, there were games from the early 1990s that were removed at the publishers/developers request. I think the main test is if there is a request to remove it. I do think some common sense is required though. I doubt you could consider a game that is less than 5 years old to be abandon ware.

Just to be technical. There is no legal precedent for abandonware. There are many people who believe it be piracy. We get away with it because most developers/publishers don't care about merchandise they aren't selling, and we cooperate with them on software that they want to protect.

Mac os 8.1 is not free, but its uploaded here anyway, i do agree that some old stuff is not abandonware
(like mac os x)

Technically neither are free. You can download <7.5.5, but you only have a license if you own a mac that originally came with that system software, or purchased it seperatly. While having a legal copy of 6 entitles you to 6.0.8, it does not entitle you to 7.5. So there is software out there that you can download for free, but you still have to have a license for it.

Apple doesn't police it because lets face it, who cares. Apple isn't making money selling new copies of OS7. They have how ever sent cease and desist orders to other websites that post Mac OS. Even the versions that are available from Apple's site.

My opinion is that operating systems are their own catagory. There is no new hardware that is being sold that can run 9.2.2, let alone 8.1. So Apple is not going to see any revenue from a sale of any classic mac os. You can't even buy orignal install disks. I have an iMac G4. I wanted to know about ordering the OEM disks. The guy at Apple was nice enough to check, but they couldn't help.

On the other hand typically companies support os's longer. MS just stopped supporting 3.11 a few years ago.

Maybe the test should be if you can get it legally new - not used, then its not abandonware.

That is a very good test.

One more thing before I go back to work.

I believe that there is a moral obligation to preserve technologies for future use. Mac OS Classic, NexSTEP, IRIX are all OS's that you can't find new. Copies are getting rarer and rarer. Discs get lost or scratched. I can't install HP-UX on my HP workstation because my install disk litterally flaked apart. Luckily I found NextSTEP.

In the future people may want to look back on old ideas to see how things were done. I truely believe that you can't understand new technology with out even having a passing understanding of what came before. Intel just released the design files for the 4004 processor. This was the precurser to the 8086. I can't really understand the new Core i7's, and I have a degrees in Comptuer Science and Computer Engineering, but studing the 4004 can give me some great insight.

With out sites like this, and people who have the passion and resources to collect older technolgy and preserve it, quite a few things would be lost. I think that is a tradegy.

BTW if someone know where I can get HP-UX 10.20 I would be greatly in your debt!

Since "abandonware" is totally subjective, the only "test" we need is common sense. That is, we have to think about whether hosting some file will get the site in trouble with lawyers or with the site host.

Uploading MS office 2004 or mac os 10.1 would get the site in trouble.
(that's my opinion)

I think we (users) should take responsibility for what we upload,
if necessary, do a little research before
and if in doubt, it would be a good idea to ask the Admins first.
and never forget to use our common sense,
of course uploading software like MS Office 2004 would be a total act of premeditated foolishness.

InkBlot, you were right to bring up the issue of those audio plug-ins. That's one of the few areas where software isn't very quick to be forgotten by its publisher. Frankly I'm even a little leery of uploading anything that works with OS X.

IMHO:
Abandonware is software released prior to 2003 that is no longer sold or updated by it's publisher for it's major revision number. For example, SomeRandomProgram v1.0 if it was released in 2002, and they currently sell SomeRandomProgram 2.0, 1.0 is abandonware. If it was origionaly free it is also abandonware.