System Shock 2 - I need info on this game.

[Starke]

Double Edit: It's a DOS game, and is now considered freeware, so downloading it for free is not illegal.

I wouldn't trust that website as far as I would throw it. It's a Windows game and it certainly does not have freeware status. At best, it has abandonware status, which only means no one will give a shit if you do download it.

It is not abandonware. Sorry if this has been said before. The game is caught up in a copyright snafu between (IIRC) EA, Irrational Games, and maybe Warren Specter, the copyright is being enforced, but it cannot be released by anyone at present.

I did say at best. This happens to be the first I've heard of this.

Not that it matters anyway, because abandonware isn't a legally accepted status and is still copyright infringement.

Yeah. The closest thing to the abandonware concept existing in reality is where the copyright holder folds, its assets are liquidated and no one buys the rights. In which case, I guess it would become public domain after 70 years. But, that basically never happens, someone's always willing to pick up the rights to a failed company's IPs, even if it's only for a couple of hundred bucks.

EDIT: I kinda seem to recall Sierra or someone actually labeling some of their back catalog as abandonware. But, strictly speaking that's a company changing the way they're licensing a given product, so not the same thing at all.

EDIT2: and yes, you did say it best. Credit where credit is due, good sir.