Somehow I don’t think they’re going to be able to keep that MAME ROM set up there for too long. There must be attack lawyers from a dozen different companies filling out C&D forms as we speak.
I love how everyone seems to think they know more about whether this material is “legal” under copyright than the lawyers advising Archive.org, and their liaisons at places like the Library of Congress 
It won’t surprise me to read about legal threats being made by incompetent Copyright trolls, but I’ll be stunned if Archive.org hasn’t done their homework to ensure that hosting something like this falls firmly within their rights.
I’m still wondering if they really understand what is in that ROM archive.
The problem is that even if you know the law, these lawyers will go over your head and threaten your ISP, your landlord, and anybody else they think they can scare. The rules for infringement lawsuits make it hard to punish people for sending frivolous complaints, and the burden of evidence is high on the accused.
Abandonware is not a legal term, and copyrights don’t lapse simply because nobody has paid attention to a property for 20, 30, 40, 50, or even 60 years. All it takes is one asshole to come out of the woodwork and go “My great grandfather made that, and I inherited the rights, I’m going to sue you for a Trillion dollars! And suddenly your ISP wants nothing to do with you anymore.”
Have you read the material at the original link? Particularly the “while your zeal for legality is laudable, the Internet Archive petitioned the Copyright Office of the US and in October 2003 received a set of clarifications and exemptions specifically for abandoned software (sometimes called “abandonware”). This applies to the United States jurisdiction, and may not apply to you all.
Details on the ruling and exemptions can be found here: http://archive.org/about/dmca.php and http://www.copyright.gov/1201/docs/librarian_statement_01.html” bit?
Hey Rob, Broken link there? All I get is the BB Nope page…
It is a dupe.
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