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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga community support ideas => Topic started by: Mazze on September 13, 2010, 06:22:19 PM

Title: rkrm ng
Post by: Mazze on September 13, 2010, 06:22:19 PM
Who owns the rights to the original RKRMs? I think that despite their age they are still a good base for an updated documentation.
Title: Re: rkrm ng
Post by: Trev on September 13, 2010, 06:57:36 PM
Amiga, Inc. and Hyperion use them as "documentation," but the copyrights on the published versions are owned by Addison Wesley--unless they were retained by Commodore and passed from company to company along the way.
Title: Re: rkrm ng
Post by: jakov on March 22, 2011, 02:52:18 PM
I at one time had an email conversation with someone who had prepared a new edition of the RKRM, but did not release them because he did not think there was a market for it.  There was even some kind of petition to release it, but I can not remember more right now...
Title: Re: rkrm ng
Post by: nicholas on March 22, 2011, 02:58:20 PM
Quote from: Trev;579097
Amiga, Inc. and Hyperion use them as "documentation," but the copyrights on the published versions are owned by Addison Wesley--unless they were retained by Commodore and passed from company to company along the way.


It has "(c) 1991 by Commodore-Electronics, Ltd." printed on the inside of the 3rd editions I have right here.

I doubt very much that A.Inc or Hyperion have the rights to use them.
Title: Re: rkrm ng
Post by: olsen on March 22, 2011, 03:48:50 PM
Quote from: nicholas;623759
It has "(c) 1991 by Commodore-Electronics, Ltd." printed on the inside of the 3rd editions I have right here.


This is not the last word on the matter. Commodore made contracts with the publishers (Addison-Wesley, which are now part of Pearson Education, and Bantam books, which are now a part of Bertelsmann) which gave them a whole bunch of rights. For example, there were plans for and even early drafts of a dos.library chapter which would have appeared in the 3rd edition RKM Libs, but Bantam books prevailed and had Commodore restrict the DOS documentation to the AmigaDOS manual.

From what I know, Commodore got the short end of the stick with these contracts. By now nobody really knows who owns what. As I hinted above, the original publishers went through several mergers and acquisitions, so you'd have a hard time even finding somebody at these corporations who would know how things stand.

As with so many things in the Amiga market the only approach to settle the accounts would be to claim ownership and wait for somebody to sue :(
Title: Re: rkrm ng
Post by: nicholas on March 24, 2011, 08:47:31 PM
Quote from: olsen;623764
This is not the last word on the matter. Commodore made contracts with the publishers (Addison-Wesley, which are now part of Pearson Education, and Bantam books, which are now a part of Bertelsmann) which gave them a whole bunch of rights. For example, there were plans for and even early drafts of a dos.library chapter which would have appeared in the 3rd edition RKM Libs, but Bantam books prevailed and had Commodore restrict the DOS documentation to the AmigaDOS manual.

From what I know, Commodore got the short end of the stick with these contracts. By now nobody really knows who owns what. As I hinted above, the original publishers went through several mergers and acquisitions, so you'd have a hard time even finding somebody at these corporations who would know how things stand.

As with so many things in the Amiga market the only approach to settle the accounts would be to claim ownership and wait for somebody to sue :(


Ok, Commodore Amiga (Iran) now claim ownership.

Must find some PDF versions to host on the website! :)
Title: rkrm ng
Post by: tone007 on March 24, 2011, 08:54:19 PM
Quote from: nicholas;624387
Ok, Commodore Amiga (Iran) now claim ownership.

Must find some PDF versions to host on the website! :)



+1 or something.