Consequences of the AmigaOS 3.1 source code "leak", one year after?

[Lionheart]

Actually, as far as Os 4 is concerned, the situation is quite clear to me. Hyperion paid for it, and had the rights to run a Os 4 development on top of Os 3.1, so it's their source and their product. So no doubts about it. And "held hostage" is not quite the right term - they own it, they sell it. Buy it - or don't.

In the same sense, Windows is "held hostage" by Microsoft. But that's only fair. They produced it, they own it, and they can do with it whatever they like. If you don't need this product, don't get it. Unfortunately, the latter part is much harder to avoid than Os 4.

For Os 3.1, however, the situation is not so obvious. I've seen what Cloanto actually bought from the bankrupt estate of CBM (yes, really), and that are the ROM images (amongst others), but not the sources. So that doesn't give them rights on the source code, IMHO, despite Cloanto claiming the contrary. I don't thrust them either. All they have are just the compiled binary images, as distributed on ROM. As soon as they would stick to selling exactly that, it would be ok, but they don't.

I haven't seen anything like that for Hyperion, i.e. I do not know what exactly they got. The license to base 4.x development on 3.1 does IMHO not cover enough rights on 3.1 as such. So maybe the compromise settlement after the process with Amiga Inc. does give them that, but to be sure, I would need to read it, which I have not.

Hyperion nor Cloanto own the source code for 3.1.  Amiga, Inc. owns the  source code.  Hyperion owns the source code to Amiga OS4 and has a  license, not ownership, to use 3.1.  

Hyperion Entertainment holds an  exclusive, world-wide, perpetual source-code license to the intellectual  property of AmigaOS 3.1 and additional content as documented in the  publicly available settlement agreement between Hyperion Entertainment  and Amiga, Inc. which has taken the form of a stipulated judgement.
~ http://hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php/news/38-corporate/167-amigaos-31-source-code-leak-official-statement


Cloanto owns trademarks to AmigaForever and Workbench.  They also only have a license, not ownership, to use 3.1 source code and Amiga trademarks in their AmigaForever package.  

In conclusion, Amiga, Inc. is the one pulling the strings.  They're never going to open-source 3.1, as they can still profit off of it through Hyperion and Cloanto. Trademarks and licenses are all Amiga, Inc has to profit off of as Bill McEwen couldn't invent his way out of a paper bag quite possibly due to being mildly retarded.  His whole AmigaDE vision before the dotcom bubble crash was pretty hilarious.  It would be nice to see Bill McEwen try to claim damages from something he himself declared dead.  However, just because something seems morally right, doesn't make it legally right.

[Lionheart]

Amiga Inc can't make a penny from Hyperion since all the licenses granted to Hyperion in the settlement agreement are royalty free.  I don't know what Cloanto's arrangement is and whether Amiga Inc can collect royalties from them.  For the OS to become open source it would require an agreement between Amiga Inc and Hyperion, and possibly Cloanto too.

Amiga Anywhere/DE was Fleecy's idea and not McBill's.  The idea of the same code running on different CPU architectures without recompilation was ProDAD's intention with p.OS.  I wonder if Fleecy ever contacted ProDAD since p.OS was actually intended as a standalone OS compared to TAO's Intent which was simply a media layer.  I seem to recall that either Thomas or Hans-Jörg had told Amiga Inc that Intent was totally unsuitable to be used as a standalone OS.

The royalties are free but the licensing fees aren't.  

AmigaDE was McEwen and Fleecy's idea.

Question: In January 2000, you have bought all the Amiga Rights and Licences to Gateway, Why ? What were your real motivations with Fleecy Moss (your Vice President - Development) ?  Bill McEwen:  The Real motivations??  We never had the chance under Gateway to execute our plans and strategy.  We believed in our mission and goals, and the only way that these were ever going to happen was if we purchased Amiga, and continued moving forward the strategy that we had laid out.

Source :  http://www.boingball.net/AMIGA_FOR_EVER/Textes/Interviews/Interview_Bill_McEwen_mail2

Their plan of course was their failed attempt at a programming language that would be cross platform compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX.  They called this AmigaDE, which had as much to do with Amiga as C=USA's computers had to do with Commodore.  Actually, less than C=USA as at least they had the decency to try to replicate the cases for Commodore's computers.  AmigaDE wasn't Amiga, it was an idea two idiots had for a software program they thought they could sell by calling it Amiga after buying the trademarks and copyrights from Gateway.

[Lionheart]

That sentence doesn't even make sense.  Perhaps you need to reword it but I think what you're trying to say will still be incorrect.

You're right, that wasn't worded properly.  I apologize.  The license agreement that Hyperion has with Amiga, Inc. allows them to use certain copyrights and trademarks without paying royalty fees for each program sold.  However, Hyperion still has to pay licensing fees to Amiga, Inc.