I think there's one or two things that might be worth clearing up. First off, copyright on a particular item doesn't last for 70 years, it lasts for "the life of the author, plus 70 years." That's a common misconception about copyright. So basically as long as the people who worked on JJ2 are still alive, the 70 years for copyright hasn't even started yet. (the law states that if multiple people work on a project, the 70 years starts after the last surviving member dies)

For "works for hire" (which I suspect JJ2 might fall under), copyright is for 95 years from the date of publish, or 120 years from the date of creation.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#hlc

It's a government site so it must be true! Anyway, a lot of people seem to think that an exception needs to be made for computer related software, since a computer creation that lasts for 70+ years is a bit absurd. But so long as they don't change it, that's still the law!

Now about abandonware. I feel that JJ2 is abandonware. It's still not legal to download (without official word that Epic is making it freeware), but it is abandonware in my mind. I always figured that abandonware was after the publisher/creator stopped supporting and selling it. Epic's website doesn't have any information on JJ2 anymore, and only a link to a site called Epic Classics, which supposedly still sells it. But Epic says that they aren't affiliated with Epic Classics, take no responsibility for what that company does, and do not support those games anymore. That strikes me as a company that has "abandoned" their game, thus it's "abandonware."

Take 3d Realms on the other hand. They still provide downloads for their games from their website (for games as far back as Commander Keen for example). Not to mention that you can still buy these games directly from the 3d Realms site. Those games strike me as not being abandoned, even if they aren't still updated.

Now it would be nice if Epic would retain the copyright for JJ2 and its characters, but release it as freeware, since they can't be making money off of it anymore. Epic did that with Castle of the Winds. I had one of the CotW developers email me CotW Part 2 for free, because Epic released it as freeware. I still have it to this day. :-) It would be nice if Epic did that with JJ2, but honestly I don't think that they even want to spend their time to just say it's freeware. Unreal has always been their cash cow, and I doubt that will ever change.

Out of curosity, has anyone ever ordered from Epic Classics? http://www.epicclassics.com/orderform.html I'm curious if it still works or not, given their site looks like it hasn't been updated in years (according to the Wayback Machine.