"http://www.amiga-hardware.com" is Down??

[Invisix]

I agree with Cyberus, I love amiga-hardware.com I use it on a regular basis to read up on old school Amiga hardware, and such.  :banana:

[Pyromania]

Perhaps what the site needs is to be sponsored and hosted by a commerical Amiga friendly entity. If the site is not too big DiscreetFX volunteers to be that company. We would handle any future complaints and free the designer of the site, Ian in this case of any worry since complaining companies would come to DiscreetFX, not him for complaints if any. Why would DiscreetFX do this? We think this site is a valuable resource and have used it many times ourselves, we don't want to see it die. DiscreetFX would charge nothing for providing this service to the Amiga community and Big Book of Amiga Hardware.

Best regards

-DiscreetFX Team

[Kin-Hell]

Does the Author of the offending software have copyrights who can make his software available for download?
If so, & if there is no more support or updates from the Author, then is there really ANY need for the Author to be so Obstinate!?
Ian did remove the software & considering what Amiga-Hardware is & has represented for the last 7 years, surely an apology both ways with offer a quick resolve. Maybe Amiga-Hardware can place a note on the front page suggesting removal of any copyrighted material within an instant of notification.
A lot of Authors of Amiga software no longer offer support & are no longer contactable so was this Author still contactable or not!?
If not, that just confounds the issue further & I laugh at the "small-ness" of it all. :lol:

[boing]

Excellent points.  People need to read that^ again and again.
Unless this driver is currently under development, or at least is still being advertised and supported then the author has no moral ground with which to {bleep} about things.

[boing]

>web.archive's backup sucks anyway... It's last snapshot is from 2004...

How does one get archive.org to archive a site anyway?  2004 is way too old.  Google *might* have some things cached but then you'd have to know what was missing from archive.org (which is flawed and incomplete at best) and try to patch them together.  As the years pass, somebody needs to start putting these sites on CD for the day when the corporations and their government stooges turn the screws on the internet.

We need to get archive.org to archive http://amiga.resource.cx completely, while there's still time.


DiscreetFX may want to quickly hit archive.org and copy what files are there.


>The site has been taken down because I received a copyright violation notice
>from the author of a driver. Perhaps it was foolish of me to offer such things for download.

1) We need to find out who the asshole complainant is.
2) We need to get the site put up on another host, sans that driver.


Personally I think that driver should now be pirated widely as a punative measure against the complainant, unless the complainant didn't intend for the whole site to be taken down.  Don't give me any crap about piracy either.  If people need the drivers, they obviously have the hardware. Hasty my ass.

  Furthermore if the driver is at all of any further commercial interest, I suggest we set up a Reward (as seen with AROS and linux efforts) for the coding of another driver that will do the same thing.  Then we release it to the public domain.  This way the support will be there, and it will send a message to any anal-retentive types out there who might blindside any other Amiga do-gooders like Ian.

[X-ray]

@ Boing

No, my good man, we must just chill and see if any additional facts come to light. We don't know what the driver is and what all the circumstances are. Ian will sort it out and the site will be back. He is just being cautious. With any luck the author of the driver will step forward and state his case (he must frequent this forum or perhaps EAB if he has written a driver and also visits BBOAH).

[AltRN8]

Worst case scenerio compress it up and put it out for us to grab one last time. IT would be terrible if it vanished forever!

[Doobrey]

boing wrote:
3) We need to find out who the worthless host was who acted against the hardware site in such a fascist manner.

Jeez, learn to read an article before getting out the torches and rounding up the lynch mob, this Amiga.org not Slashdot FFS!
 
 The hosting company didn't take the site down, the author of the driver didn't ask for the site to be taken down(just his copyrighted work removed), Ian took it down himself

[boing]

I don't give a damn.  Somebody has to hang.

[Effy]

Just got another mail from Ian, in the middle of the night :
------------------------------------------------------------
On Thursday 15 December 2005 17:30, you wrote:
 
> nice to hear again from you. Meanwhile I have heard of your 2nd
> text you got displayed. As you can read on the threads below people
> would like to know the name of the owner of the driver who caused
> you the trouble  :-)
 
I think it would be unfair of me to name the author because I don't want to
risk them getting flamed, or risk myself being pulled into arguments about
it. I will say though that as far as I'm aware the author does not work for
any currently active Amiga company and it was reference an old driver. Many
people have suggested it might be companies such as Elbox or Eyetech but that
is not the case.
 
> Actually your board being down is almost like
> London without the Twin Towers, people really take this serious !!!
> Can you give a date when it will be up
 
I cannot give an exact date, but if I would like the site to be back up as
soon as possible. Obviously it will take some time to review the contents and
how submissions are handled and all being well I can bring it back. With it
being close to Christmas, it does mean other things will have to take
priority but hopefully before the New Year.
 
--
Ian Chapman  

[amiga1084]

Hello All,

It's very sad to see Amiga-Hardware web site gone.I've
used that site countless times over the years and hope the
site returns soon as there is some information I need on
GFX card.For that Asshole with his driver disk which made
poor Ian take his site down.I hope your happy with yourself as for me and the Amiga community ain't.Regards Merv :-?

[Kin-Hell]

I know I shouldnt' but & Just to Quote:

boing said:
---------------------------------------------------
I don't give a damn. Somebody has to hang.
---------------------------------------------------

...aw heck.....I can't resist.............LOL! :roflmao:
...but he's not wrong!  :inquisitive:

[uncharted]

I think Ian has handled this very well.

Perhaps some people could volunteer to help him track down the copyright owners of the various drivers to get permission?

Some positive community action.

[Argus]

@all

afaik, generally accepted international copyright is automatic upon creation and valid unless a) the author dies prior to transferring the right or b) he/she affirmatively releases the copyright.  There really is no such thing as passive abandonware in software copyright law.

Having said that, it is a pity that someone would be so petty as to prevent use of some likely 10 year old software that has little/no street value other than to a community of retro enthusiasts.  This is especially the case if said author does not make the copyrighted material available for sale.  But, in the final analysis it is his ball and he is in the right to say who can play with it.

[motrucker]

Sorry to say, but there really is NO international copyright law. No such thing. The U.S. copyright law gives the holder his lifetime (from the date of issue) plus 70 years.
"International copyright" is "usually" treated the same in the U.S. IF there is a treaty on the books that covers most of the usual commerce laws and regs with the country the author lives in.
What we need to do, is find out what this driver is, and then write a work around type driver. The original writer may {bleep} and scream, but if the code is different, he's out of the picture and the Amiga community can rest easy.
Obviously this isn't a money issue, at this point in time, just some one being a pure PITA.

[Kin-Hell]

RE Above post.......

Yeah, but Authors CAN enforce who CAN host their software for download which then is part of the copyright. Whilst we do not know who the PITA was, it would be obvious the PITA had some sort of copyright leaning towards this.
There was no other reason for Ian to host that file, other than to provide it for people who would NEED it for their Hardware. I'm sure the Author has every right to be a PITA if his copyright is Legit.
None the less, seeing Amiga-Hardware.com dissapear for this is very disturbing & I hope Ian can resolve it's absence sooner than later.
Perhaps a good time to Incude a "Disclaimer" :idea: on Amiga-Hardware's Home Page, just to cover your Ass & the Amiga Comunity that loves your site so much.
Best of luck with it all Ian. :-)