Would you consider this to be piracy?

Ah, the good old time. When the games where too hard for me (laughing but true, I was too young and didn't have the vivacity needed by them).
But the question is not related to old games. The games you emulate can potentially make their copyright owners gain money. And that's exactly what they could say in order to put you in jail.

The game companies have a totally different point of view with yours: when you say there is not any market in your country, they will immediately answer that the market development is hindered by piracy.

It's stupid, but it's their logic. And their logic make the laws.

Another place to get "AbandonWare" is from the following site. They claim to have recieved permission for all of the games they have listed on their site for download.

http://www.the-underdogs.org/

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Another place to get "AbandonWare" is from the following site. They claim to have recieved permission for all of the games they have listed on their site for download.

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Beware it's just that. A claim. I mean all out warez sites put this "disclaimer" on the entrance and think this will save them. It does not. Just for a fair warning!

albn

Alittlebitnumb: You are right, they changed their policy

"Disclaimer: Home of the Underdogs does not claim rights to any software on the site. To the best of our knowledge, these titles have been discontinued by their publishers. If you know otherwise, please contact us and we will remove them accordingly. Thank you for your attention.

© 1998 - 2002 Home of the Underdogs
Portions are copyrighted by their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Some sites for "Abandon Ware" actually look up some companies and check to see if they either have declared chapter 11 bankruptcy, or if they have wave the right of copyright on the game (check www.classic-trash.com)

But either way, a gaming company will argue that the market is always there due to the internet now. There arguments will include eBay.com and other auction sites, as well as company sales (iD.com) and retailstore online stores (ie: Futureshop.com)

So even if the product is not on a shelf somewhere in your country, the product itself is always readily available (I know this sucks)

But here's an even thougher question: What if the game was never released, never placed on the market, but found itself in the public. Would copying it be illegal then? :) (ie: Thrill Kill)

Most patent attorneys will tell you to "enforce your copyright or loose it". Same with a trademark, if you know someone is closely duplicating it and are in the same general business you are in, and you don't challenge them you will eventually have a harder time with protecting your trademark. Anyway, that's what the legal types will tell you. I suspect that some of what you are talking about (discontinued products, etc) falls into this general category; the copyright owner is reluctant to vacate their rights under the law, even though they may not actively enforce the type of distribution you are talking about, and may even secretly find pleasure in knowing their game still has some fans although not enough to be marketable. Kind of like throwing away all those old RAM boards you don't use anymore; the day you throw them away you will find an old MB you want to rebuild that takes that old RAM. So if the copyright holder of the discontinued game vacates the copyright, and it takes off like a wildfire, they are SOL. Anyway, that's how i see it.

uuuummmm... yea.