Which is where the thinking that lead to this lawsuit begins. Almost all those games are abandonware and or over 20 years old. Normal copyright should not apply there.

Well the law is written that way, and I don't think it's completely unreasonable (at least to the life of the originator). Just seems like the IA have been bold as brass here.

Also, the term "abandonware" is hugely overused. There are tonnes of shareware premium versions on there where it's super easy to contact the creators. I've never failed to do so.