Copyrights on mods

[jammi]

Freelancer is abandonware (...)

Law-wise, such a term is not recognized by copyright laws, of what I've been pretty surprised during my law college studies. Even if game was abandoned, it is still IP of the company or mother company. This is way, all the abandonware (or old-old-gen ROM) sites are actually a tricky gray area - because it's up to owner to put banhammer on it.

As far as I remember, the term "orphan work(s)" is more recognized (within the United States at least), but bound with certain limitations.

Well, you don't say. Of course abandonware isn't legally recognised. It's an informal term for when a company cares so little for a product it doesn't even bother to issue a notice of discontinuation.

There's also little to no chance of Freelancer making it on to Gog for that same reason. Microsoft isn't interested in the IP and persistent rumour says they've lost the source files that would enable them to formally distribute rights to third parties anyway.