Abandonware

Abandonware is a product, typically software, ignored by its owner and manufacturer, and for which no product support is available. Although such software is usually still under copyright, the owner may not be tracking or enforcing copyright violations.

In intellectual rights context, abandonware is a software (or hardware) special case of the general concept of orphan works.

Definitions of "abandoned" vary, but in general it is like any item that is abandoned – it is ignored by the owner, and as such product support and possibly copyright enforcement are also "abandoned". It can refer to a product that is no longer available for legal purchase, over the age where the product creator feels an obligation to continue to support it, or where operating systems or hardware platforms have evolved to such a degree that the creator feels continued support cannot be financially justified. In such cases, copyright and support issues are often ignored. Software might also be considered abandoned when it can be used only with obsolete technologies, such as pre-Macintosh Apple computers. A difference between abandonware and a discontinued product is that the manufacturer has not issued an official notice of discontinuance; instead, the manufacturer is simply ignoring the product.

Abandonware may be computer software or physical devices which are usually computerised in some fashion, such as personal computer games, productivity applications, utility software, or mobile phones.

The term "abandonware" is broad, and encompasses many types of old software.

If a software product reaches end-of-life and becomes abandonware, users are confronted with several potential problems: missing purchase availability (besides used software) and missing technical support, e.g. compatibility fixes for newer hardware and operating systems. These problems are exacerbated if software is bound ("dongle") to physical media with a limited life-expectancy (floppy discs, optical media etc.) and backups are impossible because of copy protection or copyright law. If a software is only distributed in a digital, DRM-locked form or as SaaS, the shutdown of the servers will lead to a public loss of the software. If the software product is without alternative, the missing replacement availability becomes a challenge for continued software usage.

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