There seems to be many issues for free from:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject% … amer%22&sin=TXT

but I don't know if it's legal. You'd think so, because it's a *huge* website that seems to archive tons of out of copyright stuff and has been online for years, and it looks like it is government run (it seems, but I might be wrong) and if it was illegal then surely we'd have heard of tons of take down notices directed at the site, but I don't know for sure.

Also, the search function of the site doesn't seem to find all instances of whatever you're looking for, so try to search for different terms, or look manually through the various magazine collections if you can't find all of the issues of the magazine that you're looking for. The only problem with the site, that I can see (assuming it is a legal archive) is that there is no good way of indexing the content, unless there is and I'm just missing it (probably!).

Edit: Also, at:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=%22pc%20zone%22

are many issues of PC Zone, which was my favourite PC games magazine, and at:

http://cgwmuseum.org/index.php

you can download every issue of Computer Gaming World, which I've not read but is apparently worth reading.

This may vary all over the world, but general speaking, institutions like archives and libraries are protected by law.
In simple words, they -or rather culture itself- stand(s) higher than the copyright.

Anyway, I'm speaking highly under correction here and provide no warranties for whatsoever.
This matter sure is very debatable. Normally, though, a copyright holder can peacefully request the removal of its content.

Jo22 wrote:

This may vary all over the world, but general speaking, institutions like archives and libraries are protected by law. In simple […]
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This may vary all over the world, but general speaking, institutions like archives and libraries are protected by law.
In simple words, they -or rather culture itself- stand(s) higher than the copyright.

Anyway, I'm speaking highly under correction here and provide no warranties for whatsoever.
This matter sure is very debatable. Normally, though, a copyright holder can peacefully request the removal of its content.

I'm not saying you're wrong, of course, but if for argument's sake, archive.org is protected by law, then presumably they wouldn't have to take down an item even if it's copyright holder requested that it be taken down, or even threatened to sure the archive? That does seem morally wrong, true, but if the archive is protected by law BUT also has to take down anything requested to be taken down by the copyright holder, then how is that different from a pirate putting up a copy of the item for download from his own site, and the pirate being willing to take down the item from his site if the copyright holder does ask for it to be taken down?

I mean, say archive.org puts up say DOOM (the 2016 game) for download, and I also put up the same game on my pirate website too, for download, and we both are willing to remove it if the copyright holder says so, then there's no real difference between me and archive.org in practise, even if archive.org's taking down of the game is due to their wanting to respect the wishes of DOOM's makers, whereas my taking the game down is because I'm scared that the game's makers, who have e-mailed me to say remove it from your website, might well take me to court?

See what I mean? If archive.org are protected by law but would still be willing to remove any item that the copyright holders then gets in touch and says "Remove that from the download page", then there's no practical difference between archive.org and a pirate site, at least until the take down e-mail is sent.

BTW, I don't have a pirate site, nor even any other sort of web site (or a twitter account even), I'm just saying that the situation with sites like archive.org does seem a little strange.

I'm no lawyer, just tried to visualize that thing's arn't necessarily wrong/right as they may look at first glance.
Content (ebooks, audio, etc) is delivered in part by volunteers which aren't employed by/affiliated to the archive.
Also, some foreign content's right might not be acknowledged by the country an archive/library is located in.
Or vice versa, a library/archive has the right to archive national content as a matter of principle, despite the copyright.
In either case, the holder can request the institution in question to remove the content.
Normally, then both sides wil find al compromise out-of-court-.
That being said, no warranties. The above is just my understanding of the matter.
The matter is both easy and complex at the same time. 😉

They have no more protection in law than any other similar physical or online institution, but rely in part on the 'Fair Use' doctrine which permits use of various types of copyrighted material with or without explicit consent from the copyright holders. They must however, have policies in place to engage with holders should they challenge such use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

https://archive.org/about/faqs.php#20