Downloading Retro Video Games For Free
The general counter arguments are: 1. Video games are not a need but a luxury product. Therefore if they are not available then using a controversial means of obtaining them is putting yourself unnecessarily in Allah’s eyes because you can’t say that you really need them especially since the video game company are crying about their rights being violated. They are not quiet about it, they do cry a lot about injustice like e.g Nintendo. 2. It is a permission issue generally. If I don’t want you to take a picture of my car then is it immoral to take the picture anyway (even if there is no harm in making a copy of car in picture form)? That’s issue, companies intentionally make older products unavailable just so people can buy new ones. By going against their permissions, many people will not end up buying newer products because people will just get a free substitute (although older/retro). Companies argue that this hurts their “potential” sales and profit. Now that being said, I’m not sure how scholars generally feel about the 2nd point so I would love to hear an analysis whether hurting potential sales is a violation of rights/sin. @UmerQureshi
That makes sense. I do however need one clarification on this: “If this is the situation in any country where such copyrights violations are considered legal at an individual level (subject to certain conditions), then the matter downgrades from status of explicit prohibition.” In most countries, like Canada, piracy for personal use is not considered illegal. But it is still considered a “civil offence” which translate to “someone’s right has been violated but it is their responsibility to hire a lawyer and sue” but because it is difficult for companies to take every individual to court, they don’t bother. Now what do you think about this? Because the individuals is only allowed to do copyright violation because company can’t be bothered to sue everyone and hence legally the individuals can take advantage of this.
I think in terms of abandon-ware, what @UmerQureshi said regarding mushtabihat in first reply would apply here. It takes 70 years for copyright to end and for anything to enter public domain but in this situation, the owner of the product does not care or no longer exists. So it can’t be entirely prohibited and there is no clear law about this or company policy for these products which is why they end up as abandon-ware. Although there can be an argument of whether the website is being honest or not but that is their burden of being honest, not the one who will download it. So if you don’t feel anything wrong about it then you may use abandon-ware until it is published. Or avoid it as Prophet PBUH advised in preferring caution in such grey matters.
@FortunateServant so Vimm’s lair is a yes? No? Or unknown?