I discussed this with a colleague today and we lamented that, during review, the Library of Congress does not address the issue of "abandon-ware." While I have spoken out in the past against this notion, I do agree to some extent with particular instances -- Miami, is one such instance.
Companies like Atari (Hasbro now, right?) have addressed the distribution of 2600 ROMs by licensing the games for release in TV-connected games, PC software emulators with modernized versions, etc. But some companies go completely defunct or simply tell people to piss off. On the one hand, you deal with a software provider which decides to exercise its American right to NOT no longer sell, support, or sell its software, but on the other hand you have the potential "damage" to the community or market.
I'll still void your iphone's warranty though, so what's the difference?
One is a legal violation, the other is not. Take your pick. Personally, I would much rather know that while modifying equipment I have purchased will void its warranty, I cannot be prosecuted for the same or for offering a service to do the same.
I get really agitated at AT&T for their approach to unlocked phones, which is pretty much "go fsck yourself." Other than the CEO's politics, that is my only aversion to AT&T.
I really like a particular brand of phone which AT&T sells, but only select "hip" models. IOW, pretty and marginally functional in design. So I purchase unlocked and wind up having certain problems. I cannot purchase from the AT&T Mall, and the games applications I want cannot be purchased directly from the developers (Namco, a LOT of Gameloft, Mobile Banking, etc.) When I call with a problem they immediately blame my phone, and so on.
Recently I came across a locked phone of the same manufacture and used a program to rip its back-end filesystem. After examining it and applying select customizations to my phone, I can now stream video properly and run AT&T-signed applications. (Although, for the later I have to spoof the user-agent string of a supported phone and use AT&T's proxy.)
Too bad there is only one GSM/3G carrier in the US. Yeah, there is T-Mobile, but for the time being its service is a joke. For the time being -- it is rolling out 14Mb/s 3G in a mass assault. VERY nice.
