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Archive of old paid software?
- Thread starter RamCpu
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A lot of the software you refer to is end of life. The manufacturers neither continue to update, distribute, or sell the applications.
As there isn't a legal way to legitimately purchase them, then as far as I'm concerned they're abandonware. I wouldn't feel guilty going down that route.
the likely hood of messaging apple for say a free version of final cut pro for powerpc ? lol
[doublepost=1471106677][/doublepost]also has there never been a collective movement / request to apple to release the older versions of their software that won't even run on the intel machines?
macintoshgarden.org is great. You probably won't be able to find things like iMovie, but you can find other paid software fine (like Toast Titanium.)
There are more developers than Apple you know.
They used to do it with a lot of stuff stuff pre-OSX.
Oh, you will find old versions of iLife (OSX/PPC), iWorks (OSX/PPC), AppleWorks6 (MacOS9) and even FinalCut and a bunch of marvellous abandonware on macintoshgarden.org!
Shhhhhhh...that's meant to be a secret, there could be Cupertino spies lurking here!
Huu... but look at their urge to speed foreward. They don't seem to want to look back - neither to their obsolence- or ill-fated stuff nor to all the good things (like the PPCs...Shhhhhhh...that's meant to be a secret, there could be Cupertino spies lurking here!
)I guess they don't care about people using the abandonware on their forgotten hardware for free - unless its forked or copied to be used from other parties against them.
Surely they are even lucky someone else is spending the time caring about a repository and promoting the cult of mac ... !?
As a company giving away their latest OS for for free since OS X 10.8 now I think they would rather see the abandoned stuff beeing available for free than beeing sold 2nd hand for much money then drawing away money from future customers that might be willing to invest into new hardware after having a positive experience with even > 10y old stuff. And even if people buy the next mac 2nd hand too, this will increase the investment into new hardware beeing made by someone else ...
As far as I can see the "gardening" people are cautious not to host stuff that's still in the shelves to avoid any conflicts ...
A couple years ago, I called Apple support trying to get the original restore CDs for my Power Mac G4 (I wanted iDVD version 1.0 for OS 9, for collectors reasons.) After getting bounced around, I finally got someone who said that they could transfer me to a department that could get the original restore discs sent to me for a nominal fee.
When I got to that person, they said that they didn't stock the original restore discs any more. When I explained why I wanted them, she said I should look on Macintosh Garden!
Hahaha... in my previous posting I was tempted to write "maybe they've thrown old stuff completely overboard and and lucky, someone else is going to archive it". But then I thought this would be a but nasty and far from reality.
It's obviously not!? They really seem rush foreward never lookig back ...
No, they haven't. They took down the CS2 activation servers, and offer the downloads for legitimate users. Yes, you can download it without a serial, but this is practically illegal. You are responsible if the feds in a rare case do knock on your door, or bust it in!
It may not entirely apply, but there is an aspect of copyright law which requires the holders of a copyright to enforce their copyright if they wish to keep it in force. This is why some copyright holders seem to make mountains out of molehills with some cease and desist orders. If they don't take steps to protect their copyright, they may lose the legal right to enforce it in the future.
That's a gray area with abandonware and what might make it quasi-legal to distribute. In most cases, the copyright holders aren't seeking to enforce copyrights so according to the law it might be hard for them to enforce their copyrights in the future.
In the case of Macintosh Garden, I know the admins have taken stuff down at the request of the copyright holders. So one could reasonably surmise that if stuff remains on there for years and the copyright holders (including major companies who have to know it's there) don't demand that they take it down, they've stopped caring about enforcing their copyright on these titles -- which would more or less make it fair game.
That's a gray area with abandonware and what might make it quasi-legal to distribute. In most cases, the copyright holders aren't seeking to enforce copyrights so according to the law it might be hard for them to enforce their copyrights in the future.
In the case of Macintosh Garden, I know the admins have taken stuff down at the request of the copyright holders. So one could reasonably surmise that if stuff remains on there for years and the copyright holders (including major companies who have to know it's there) don't demand that they take it down, they've stopped caring about enforcing their copyright on these titles -- which would more or less make it fair game.