What was the first abandonware?
Abandonware
Abandonware Ring
As response to the missing availability of abandonware, people have distributed old software since shortly after the beginning of personal computing, but the activity remained low-key until the advent of the Internet. While trading old games has taken many names and forms, the term "abandonware" was coined by Peter Ringering in late 1996.[17] Ringering found classic game websites similar to his own, contacted their webmasters, and formed the original Abandonware Ring in February 1997.[17] This original webring was little more than a collection of sites linking to adventureclassicgaming.com. Another was a site indexing them all to provide a rudimentary search facility. In October 1997, the Interactive Digital Software Association sent cease and desist letters to all sites within the Abandonware Ring, which led to most shutting down. An unintended consequence (called the Streisand effect in Internet parlance) was that it spurred others to create new abandonware sites and organizations that came to outnumber the original Ring members. Sites formed after the demise of the original Abandonware Ring include Abandonia, Bunny Abandonware and Home of the Underdogs. In later years abandonware websites actively acquired and received permissions from developers and copyright holders (e.g. Jeff Minter, Magnetic Fields[18][19] or Gremlin Interactive[20]) for legal redistribution of abandoned works,[21] an example is World of Spectrum who acquired the permission from many developers and successfully retracted a DMCA case.[22][23][24][25]