I think that rather then spending money going after the abandonware pirates, they should look at the situation from a marketing standpoint. Just by the sheer number of sites, and hits these sites are getting, there is obviously consumer interest in abandonware. Realizing this, rather than trying to shut these services down, maybe they should sign some sort of contract with the site operators to provide the software the companies themselves are no longer willing to provide. The way I see it, it ends up like an outsourcing project: the company receives revenue, without any of the overhead cost for it. And I think consumers truly interested in the abandonware titles would be willing to pay a certain small amount to have access to the software.
I think this is perfect example of not only how inflexible companies have become, but how copyright laws can be used for the wrong purpose.
Somehow, it doesn't surpise me that the company quoted in the cnet article is Microsoft. I think they are one of the best examples of a company that doesn't know how to serve the consumer, nor what the consumer wants.
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I think that rather then spending money going after the abandonware pirates, they should look at the situation from a marketing standpoint. Just by the sheer number of sites, and hits these sites are getting, there is obviously consumer interest in abandonware. Realizing this, rather than trying to shut these services down, maybe they should sign some sort of contract with the site operators to provide the software the companies themselves are no longer willing to provide. The way I see it, it ends up like an outsourcing project: the company receives revenue, without any of the overhead cost for it. And I think consumers truly interested in the abandonware titles would be willing to pay a certain small amount to have access to the software. I think this is perfect example of not only how inflexible companies have become, but how copyright laws can be used for the wrong purpose. Somehow, it doesn't surpise me that the company quoted in the cnet article is Microsoft. I think they are one of the best examples of a company that doesn't know how to serve the consumer, nor what the consumer wants.