"Abandoned software" far as I know is not a law. It's just hard to find it, perhaps impossible to find it new, but the copyright is still intact. It's a made up term that was coined to ease the minds of those who copy software without permission.
Basically it just means it's now up to you to find away to obtain it that allows you to sleep at night. ;-)
It is sad news that ASH is somehow unable to replace disks though. Pity.
Well if the source code can't be obtained, then the authors could at least release disk images of the final version.
