A-EON Technology Acquires Personal Paint

[broadblues]

So versions sub 7.1 will note be avaliable elsewhere? Why does it matter then if I host them, anyone gets hurt by it?
If so it seems this falls under the title "Abandonware" in my book.

Certainly it does not. Ignoring the fact that abandonware is not a legal concept,  it refers to abandoned software, which PPaint is clearly not now, nor has it ever been, being always at least distributed by it's original copyright holders and now developed by the new ones.

And PPaint 7.1  will run on any age of machine, so older copies are redundant.

[broadblues]

Has anyone tried the 68k version of 7.3 with AmigaOS 4 or MorphOS? I would like to buy a copy if it works well

Can't speak for Morphos but it will run on AmigaOS4, **but** oddly enough the AmigaOS4 version will run much better, not just faster because it's native but also it makes better usage of the more modern API functions and can promote screens to 24bit allowing smoother integration (no monitor resync it screen switching) and true colour previews in the Story Board.

The 68k version will attempt to run in low memory mode on AmigaOS 4 because it can't find any chip mem the PPC build knows about this and doesn't panic :-) The PPC version will never accidentally run the angus based blit library, so avoiding a crash the 68k can have when running on an OS4 machine.

If you buy both you get a discount...

[Minuous]

There is plenty of room for both. You should avoid mixing them up. Critique against trying to clean the freeware version off the internet is no the same as critique against the continued development of PPaint. In the same vein, praise for the continued development is not the same thing as praise for them asking for their files to be removed from Aminet.

Well said.

can anyone please suply some court cases involving private persons and distubution of 15+ year old software? Ive searched here in Sweden and can not find a single case, everything is just about new software and movies/music. Seems hard to find this anywhere from any place in the world.

ThoR has made some accurate observations about the legalities of abandonware, but as you have surmised, in terms of actual cases of being taken to court over abandonware, it just doesn't happen. Therefore the actual legal risk is effectively nil. And of course, as in my case, if one has no assets, there is no problem in being sued.

Note further that even in case the owner went bankrupt, the copyright doesn't go away. It is just transfered.

IANAL but my understanding is that this would be correct where the bankrupt company was bought by another one. But in some cases this doesn't happen and thus there is no rights holder any longer for that material.

In short for me is preservation to hinder something from getting lost forever important.

Your site seems have a password on it, that's not very helpful in terms of preservation. :-(

[psxphill]

And of course, as in my case, if one has no assets, there is no problem in being sued.

That depends on the country you live in. You could face a prison sentence or fines taken from future earnings. It may also affect your ability to gain employment.

[itix]

Can't speak for Morphos but it will run on AmigaOS4, **but** oddly enough the AmigaOS4 version will run much better, not just faster because it's native but also it makes better usage of the more modern API functions and can promote screens to 24bit allowing smoother integration (no monitor resync it screen switching) and true colour previews in the Story Board.

The 68k version will attempt to run in low memory mode on AmigaOS 4 because it can't find any chip mem the PPC build knows about this and doesn't panic :-) The PPC version will never accidentally run the angus based blit library, so avoiding a crash the 68k can have when running on an OS4 machine.

If you buy both you get a discount...

I can donate my Efika (PSU, Radeon and HD included) if you want to check it out. It has no key but 30 minutes is enough to check if it runs or not.

[amigakit]

@itix

Thats very generous of you.  Don't worry, I have an Efika here and a Pegasos II to lend Andy

[som99]

Your site seems have a password on it, that's not very helpful in terms of preservation. :-(

Oh I am a uploader/top sharer on a closed retro torrent community so I share TB's a month
But regarding my site, it's still under construction, some parts are not password protected but flagged hidden so just knowing the right /ending makes em accessable.

Also I am in the process of bulding another server and merging everything from a bunch of current machines to that one (EXSi virtualization) and the goal of the new dual CPU Xeon machine is to handle the load of many machines. When that machine is done and all configurations and merging of ZFS etc is done I will work on the homepage again

If someone want access to something password protected just hit me up with a PM telling me what you want and i'll might make an account for you I already have a bunch of amiga.org users in the userlist

ThoR has made some accurate observations about the legalities of abandonware, but as you have surmised, in terms of actual cases of being taken to court over abandonware, it just doesn't happen. Therefore the actual legal risk is effectively nil. And of course, as in my case, if one has no assets, there is no problem in being sued.

Yea as said, going to court as Abandonware sharer in Sweden does not happen, court do not pick up on it and most common is as said cease and desist which also is not to common regarding old software but have happened (yes EA I am looking at you).

Edit: Now it's to off topic so I'll get back to the subject.

Great that PP will still be worked on, I will buy the latest PP version for 3.x when possible.

Edit: Just bought 7.3

[pVC]

Not sure how layers would work in an 8bit gfx program, layers based programs such as ahen , SketchBlock, reply on alpha blending and other advanced pixel manipulations like multiply add subtract that do not translate well.

Do you have an example of a 8bit program using layers so I can see how it works in relation to them?

I'm more oldskool painter and haven't used layers much, but couldn't it be quite useful with 8bits too if you could just draw layers over each other and underlaying layer would just be shown on transparent background color of upper layers? And you could rearrange layer order and enable/disable them.

You could for example have some texts in middle layer and then it would be easy to rewrite them without bigger hassle?

I could see advantages even with that without any more complex processing.

[psxphill]

I'm more oldskool painter and haven't used layers much, but couldn't it be quite useful with 8bits too if you could just draw layers over each other and underlaying layer would just be shown on transparent background color of upper layers? And you could rearrange layer order and enable/disable them.

Layers when using color palettes is still useful, it just becomes difficult to do alpha blending (though there is no reason you couldn't allow it in a limited form).

[Yasu]

I'm still hoping AmigaKit and A-Eon will prove they want to support all NG Amiga flavours by porting their products to MorphOS and AROS. We where told that 180 buyers was needed (which seems like a strange number since a recompile should be pretty simple) but then no step has been taken to see if there are 180 potential buyers.
Or at least tell us straight up that you are only interested in supporting classic Amigas and AmigaOS 4 if that is the case.

Either way is fine with me. You are running a business that fokus on these platforms so it makes sense. I just don't like this feeling of "we will tell people we support all flavours but in reality only support 68k and AOS 4". It feels ... dishonest.

[amigakit]

Hi

180 licences pays the developer and support costs.  I have not had anyone yet contact me expressing an interest so far in another platform. I very much would be interested in any MOS users who would be interested in buying a licence so I may gauge genuine interest.

The good news is that we have now exceeded sales of 180 units on AmigaOS so we are half way there to paying for the next phase of development.

[Yasu]

Strange. I know for a fact someone offered to port it. For free even. And was turned down.

I would buy a licence. And if you get Art Effect 4 for MorphOS I would buy that too. The other programs, we'll see

[amigakit]

Ask the developer to contact me please

Ill add you to the top of the MOS customer list now

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Any update on when OctaMed SoundStudio or the Prisma Megamix sound card will be available for purchase?  

[pVC]

Many others have already bought 68k version for MorphOS use (me and several friends for example), and would probably buy the native version too, but I guess there isn't good (or at least visible) channels to express it...

[Yasu]

I read it in an IRC conversation. I can't remember the guys handle. Hopefully someone who knows reads this thread.

You should add a pledge page somewhere where people can write their names and e-mail.

Also, have you considered to buy some last generation (semi-) friendly Amiga games and port them too? Those that are quirky but almost working on NG. It would be fun to have some original Amiga titles to play. Foundation and Genetic Species comes to mind