E3B - press release regarding potential software problems

[Andrea]

This press release is incomplete. It should start: In the Mediator ML post from 3 Jan 2007 Darek Smietana (Elbox) is threatening to modify drivers of all Elbox products so that they do not work with E3B products... in revenge for not registering (since 18 Nov 2006) the Poseidon stack for Spider users by Chris Hodges.

I think, if Chris Hodges can make his Poseidon stack not work with an Elbox product, Elbox can do the same in revenge, right? If you blame Elbox, blame Hodges first - he started that game.  :pissed:

Fortunately I don't have any E3B product.

[Andrea]

@ Lemmink

Well there is a huge difference.
Chis simply decided no to sell it's product to certain customers.

I see no difference. Elbox simply threatens that if Hodges does not restore Poseidon stack registration for Spider, Elbox would decide not to sell (or give away) further versions of their drivers for certain customers (those who use the Poseidon stack with cards other than Spider USB).

Thats perfectly legal.

Maybe yes, maybe not. But for sure it is unfair for users and Elbox. Chris has not paid Elbox for writing Mediator USB drivers for his Poseidon stack. So Chris has some obligations towards Elbox. You can read about this here. It is also unfair for users because Chris stopped selling Poseidon without any warning.

It's his product and he can decide whom he sells it too, weather you like it or not.

So you must give the same right to Elbox, because their drivers are their products and they can decide whom they sell them (or give away), right?

Elbox on the other side says "We will render our hardware ( that you allready have paid us for !!) useless if you also use Chis software."

As I understand you can still use current drivers. You have not paid for future drivers, right?

[Andrea]

@ Tahoe

Of course they CAN'T !

Maybe this will help:
Dell has a dispute with Microsoft; Microsoft no longer sells Windows to Dell. Now Dell in their turn says: if you own a HP printer; we will no longer support the printer; because Microsoft still sells Windows to HP.

Then Chris is a Microsoft here. What an appropriate simile... :-D

Once and for all: Chris does NOT work for E3B; nor for the Australian company selling USB cards. E3B does offer a registered Poseidon with their card because they have a normal agreement; unlike Elbox.

No-one says that Chris works for E3B or for the Australian company selling USB cards.

Chris made an agreement with E3B and Chris made an agreement with Elbox. The first agreement, as I understand, is that his Poseidon stack is selling with E3B cards, and the second agreement is that Chris sells Poseidon for Mediator users himself. I think, both agreements are normal, even though their conditions are different. If I remember correctly it was Chris' condition to sell Poseidon to Mediator users himself.

[Andrea]

@ lorddef

Andrea, I guess you are affiliated with Elbox?

I read the whole email trail posted on planton42.de, and as long as that's all true (as I assume it is) it's clear Elbox tried to shaft Chris and paying Mediator uses.

It may be a shock for your intuition to learn that your guess is wrong, I am not affiliated with Elbox. :-D

I read emails posted on platon42.de carefully and I still find that it is Chris who plays unfair.

[Andrea]

@ Lemmink

Sure and why the hell should he It`s not like Elbox has done Cris any favor in writing the driver. They did it so they could sell hardware. Usually in this big big World it works the other way round. The manufacrurerer of hardware have to pay license fees to use an existing system and write a driver for it.

I think that all depends on the agreement between both parties. Chris and Elbox agreed that payment for the Poseidon licence fee is up to users,  developing drivers is up to Elbox, registering the USB stack is up to Chris.

Here is what Elbox wrote on Mediator ML about this agreement details:

It was Chris Hodges, the Poseidon stack author, who approached us
with a proposal to prepare support for Mediator by our programmers
for his Poseidon stack. Before final decision we negotiated some
conditions with Chris Hodges. One of them was that Chris Hodges
undertook to manage problem-free and comfortable registration of
the Poseidon stack for Mediator users and to ensure equal treatment
of users with various USB hardware supported by Poseidon. It means
he undertook to support Mediator users as long as he supports users
of other hardware supported by his USB stack. Chris Hodges accepted
this condition. Our programmer has written the drivers for Poseidon
and the USB stack author gained a group of new customers (Mediator
users) for his stack.

If it were Chris Hodges to provide the complete software for our
hardware (the Poseidon stack and USB hardware drivers) or if
Chris Hodges would have paid us for preparation of USB hardware
drivers for Mediator, then we would not object to his dropping
support for his whims. However, the situation is different.

Source: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Amiga-Mediator/message/18150

[Andrea]

@ Jupp3

Mediator owner walks into any computer shop, buys an USB card that has compatible chipset, plugs it into his Mediator, confirms that it works and THEN registers Poseidon.

I agree with you. This scenario would be best. But things are no so simple as it may seem. The problem is that the Poseidon stack is lacking one very important component - the driver for the USB PCI cards.

[Andrea]

@ platon42

If you made an agreement with Elbox and they did their work, you should also keep your obligations. Otherwise, you seem to be the bad guy.

[Andrea]

@ Jupp3

As the author pointed out, Poseidon supports many different PCI USB cards. But I guess you refer to USB PCI card for Elbox Mediator? Then I don't understand why use plural (cardS) as the support is artificially restricted to only one model.

Poseidon supports many different PCI USB cards just as Picasso96 supports many different PCI graphic cards. But to use a specific PCI card, you need drivers for this very card.

Poseidon does not include drivers for any USB PCI card. There are 3rd party drivers for them only.