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ISO's on website for free download

Balloonatic

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Posted November 11, 2009 at 9:22PM

Hi all,

Can any one tell me if it is legal or illegal to have a website with back up copies of software (iso's etc) for free download.

I am not talking about "cracked" software or the inclusion of serial numbers etc, just a simply copy of the software disc.

I, like many, have program disk's which have got scrathed etc and are useless when it comes to format/reinstall etc and being able to download the ISO free of charge would be a perfect solution to use with your 'already paid for' serial number etc.

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Forum Editor

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Posted November 11, 2009 at 11:02PM

such a service would be a contravention of the copyright act. You would be distributing the software, and that's illegal, unless you have the prior consent of the copyright holder (the software companies).

You can make a back-up copy of software for your personal use, but that's as far as it goes - you mustn't provide copies to other people, and you certainly mustn't offer them to the world at large via a website.

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Balloonatic

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Posted November 12, 2009 at 10:40AM

Thanks for the advice. I was looking at a website recently called "oldversions.com" thats what gave me the idea.

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Ansolan

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Posted November 13, 2009 at 12:52AM

Believe you will find the site you mentioned doesn't offer much in the way of software, just one in a chain of affiliate sites they run and not great to mimic in many ways.

The sound advice you were offered on copyright makes far more sense than their model.

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