Is there any way to tell if a particular abandonware game actually IS abandonware and legal to download for free? I've downloaded abandonware several times only to find out later that the download was illegal and the game was still copyright protected. Does anyone know of a site that only offers real abandonware? Thanks.

Not sure what that is orange.

But, according to the Supreme Courts ruling in the Spring of 2004, file sharing is legal. Sharing music online, movies, etc. is completely legal (provided there is no money for any service fees). They compared it to a library. You can photocopy a book at a library and that is legal. Heck, the library even has photocopy machines on its premises.

Abandonware is computer software (games or other applications) that are a few years old and are assumed to be abandoned by the people or companies that created them. For example, one game I downloaded is called the "The Castle of Dr. Brain" and runs on the old Amiga system or a newer computer if you have an emulator. I was able to download it free of charge, but then found out that the creators have renewed the copyright and still want people to pay for it. Another example is Chips Challenge from Microsoft. Apparently they still want people to pay for that, too. Many of the sites that used to offer it for free have been forced to remove it.

The Abandonware term is fine to use for games that publishers don't care about, don't produce or sell anymore, and have no interest in protecting. In the strictest legal sense though, it is still considered pirated software since the copyright holders haven't waived their rights.
(See: http://www.mobygames.com/featured_article/feature,7/ or http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/abandonware/)

Although they don't sell themselve as an Abandonware site, a site like Home of the Underdogs (http://www.the-underdogs.org/) does a decent job of separating stuff that really is just no longer available anywhere from stuff that you should be purchasing.

Thanks so much philly, that's what I wanted to know! Very helpful!