What is the legality of copying software that can no longer be purchased?

My company has bought many compilers over the years (PL/M, C, BASIC, ASM, etc) none of which can be purchased anymore. Some of the companies don't exist and some do (Intel, Borland, Microsoft) but they don't sell or acknowledge these old versions from the 1980s or 1990s.

My business is dependant on new copies of this software for new employees and future customers. How can these be legally supported? Can Microsoft legally sell me a compiler and then 10 years from now tell me that all my products that require their software can no longer be sold?

Sometimes Microsoft offers "downgrade rights" whereby I can buy a later version of a product and use the older version, but often no newer version is being produced. What are my options?

it's often referred to as abandonware, and different companies look at it differently.
I can tell you a website where a bunch of programmers hang out, and you can ask them, as they would be most likely to know.

contact me at tigerkitty2 @ yahoo . com remove spaces to email
out of respect for them, i'd rather not post the web address in a public place.

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