Distribution Licence For Workbench...

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Agree on the price... but at least it can still be purchased/obtained easily enough...

Workbench/AmigaOS 1.x- 3.1 can be legally bought as part of the Amiga Forever package! Hoist by your own petard!

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As an aside, I wonder if M$ would care about people downloading MSDOS, Win3.1, etc. anymore? Apple with their olden OS's. OR is it just the Amiga community that gets their undies in a bunch of this kind of thing?  :lol:

Microsoft would probably claim patent violation of their FAT12/16/32 patent... Apple released System 7.x for free, it used to be available on their own servers for a while... Gone now, and they really don't care about pre OSX now.

-edit- well poke me with a stick, it is still free on their servers!! http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.0.x/

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@Franko,
 
I have every sympathy for what you're doing, it is absolutely ludicrous that they are not distributed for free. As others have said, though, it does seem a little pointless your making a big deal about it, as they are easy to find via Google.
 
What I suspect will happen though is that you will be contacted by Cloanto, especially as their representatives are regularly on these boards. They are not the copyright owners, but as licensees they seem to be under the impression (whether rightly or wrongly I don't know) that it is their legal obligation to take action when they are made aware of sites distributing Kickstart or Workbench files.
 
From http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/13-122:
 

 
I'll be curious to see what happens anyway!

And Cloanto have every right and legal responsibly to protect the AmigaOS IP... They seem to be very fair with their approach.

@Franko to be Frank with you (excuse the pun), the best idea is to just support the AROS68k project. It already has compatibility with AmigaOS 1.3 through to 3.1, and is getting better everyday... Why not funnel those vast tax fiddled funds you boast about, into some more bounties to help the developers optimise and improve it?

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@AmigaNut

Unfortunatelly you don't get to decide what is legal and what isn't. Cloanto have paid real money to get a Free Verison of AmigaOS available to ALL Amiga users, what you you ever done (other than be a prat of course, you can have that for free)?

Instead of whining about how you want others to make pirate copies of AOS available (to keep the memory Alive?!), why not help out the community by supporting the Free Opensource clone of AROS68K?

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Cloanto offers an emulated suite (suite = UAE bundled with lots of goodies such as AE, programms etc) of AmigaOS that does not run on real amigas.
 
Right now, it is impossible to obtain any version of 68k AmigaOS.

And Cloanto have paid very large sums of money into the AROS 68k and Kickstart replacement bounties. Without their help the AROS68K project wouldn't exist at the level it is now!

It is a Free clone of AmigaOS that CAN boot real Amigas and run Amiga software! That is the future! Not pirating copyrighted software!

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So it works PERFECTLY then?

It only started working at all, late last year! As I'm on the Dev-list I can see the improvements daily, with our support it will surpass the aged Commodore produced OSs

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@ Bloodline

You know the Tax fiddle thing was a joke, but to answer your query about supporting AROS then the answer is no, as it's simply something I don't have a use for or need, so sorry but I don't give my money away to things that hold no interest for me...

Um, AROS provides a Free Workbench/Kickstart replacement... One that is not encumbered with stupid copyright issues... Please explain how that is something you don't "have a use for or need"? This whole thread is dedicated to the fact you DO have a need for just such software!?

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In my case, it doesn't work so I'm not paying for it.

I will promise the AROS team one thing, when it works correctly and I'm using it then I'll make a donation to the cause.

Like Franko, I pay money for things that interest me.  I bought a C-One board, I bought one of the early Minimig v1.1 boards, I've bought a Chameleon and I've bought a FPGA Arcade all because I want to help them get developed and released as commercial items (except for the C-One which morphed into the Chameleon and the Natami, but then it always was a dev board).

How do I put this? AROS isn't a company, it's not a "Team", it's not a project, it's a source code repository. This source code is free for anyone to use and when compiled generates software that clones AmigaOS. This source code is added to and improved by members of the Amiga community.

You can't donate to the AROS team, you can simply make requests for features/improvements and add an incentive to inspire a coder to take up the request. Whatever is the result of that, become part of the AROS code and is free for anyone to use. It is a community effort, by the comment for the community.

I realise you might not understand the opensource movement so this can seem alien, but the end result is worth the effort. I have donated both money and code to the project and I would expect others to do the same if they want the Amiga to still exist in 20 years.

You say it doesn't work, I know then that you haven't even tried AROS68k...

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Does it work 100%?  The answer is "no" so I don't need to try it yet.

Once it does work and I can use it as I use WB3.x then I can donate to the team by donating to "bounties" to add extra features.

You see, if it actually did "work" then  we would all be using it right now and we wouldn't have this thread.  Correct?

Try it, see for yourself

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I will and I'll get back to you.  A4000 should be OK?

Yes, here is how to load the ROM file so that it boots the machine:

Copy bin/amiga-m68k/AROS/boot/aros.elf.gz and AROSBootstrap to a floppy, and run AROSBootstrap from a S:Startup-Sequence on the floppy, ie:

---- DF0:S/Startup-Sequence ----
AROSBootstrap aros.elf.gz
NewCLI
EndCLI


This is from the Dev list

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I really don't understand what koaftder & Fats hope to achieve. Maybe they think that if they stop people from copying Amiga software then the clock will turn back 20 years or so ?
Perhaps all those software houses that abandoned the Amiga in 1994 will change their minds & start supporting it again ? ROFLMAO ;-)

It's about being consistent.

Do you think I could have any legitimate right to complain about people pirating my music or my apps if I could happily watch other people's IP being abused?

Personally I think there probably should be a special place in copyright law to cover software for machines that haven't been manufactured for 20 years... But that isn't the law. Someone owns the IP (crooks who should be behind bars), and they have rights.

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"crooks who should be behind bars"

Hey, that's just my opinion... I also think that Amiga Inc., Hyperion and EyeTech destroyed the Amiga and what little brand value it had... But that doesn't mean I'm gonna go and steal their stuff.

And they deserve the same treatment as you or I?
Hey, you'd love the ACLU in my country.
They think consistency is so important that they go to court to secure the rights of local Nazis to demonstrate.

Yeah, but where do you stop? Freedom of speech is just that, with any luck people will hear what the nutters have to say and realise that they are extremist weirdos... But people should be allowed to make that choice... Or do you prefer that your decisions are made for you?

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And how are you ever going to change the law to something like you describe if no-one takes a stance against the current laws and at least makes an attempt to highlight how absurd they are and hopefully bring about changes in them...

Were not talking here about you're stuff that you write and try to earn a few bob from, I would defend your stuff against either piracy or copyright theft, were talking like you say about stuff that's over 20 years old and it would seem no even the copyright owners give a toss about...

I've already said I'm not keen on how software is treated in this regard. If you want to make a stand draw up a legal document (with the help of a legal professional) and send it to the Amiga Inc. official address... Have you tried contacting Cloanto or C=USA for Amiga Inc. Contact information?

If you are going to challenge them, do it properly!

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@ bloodline

I appreciate what you're saying, though perhaps in your case it's a little more subjective than for others ? Most here have nothing of their own to lose, so have little interest in seeing that copyright law is respected, I think.
Good idea about the "special place", far too much 'copyright camping' happening today. Can't imagine that the legal profession would like it much - they make far too much money from things the way they are.

Like most things, it's hard to see when you're on the other side of the fence... So to speak... I think most people here are probably quite happy with the law that protects their possessions... It is illegal for me to break into someone's house and steal their DVDs. We don't get to pick and choose the law, if we don't like the laws of our country we can in theory vote in a government who will change the laws, but enough people have to dislike that law, that is the consequence of living in a civilised society.

Again for the record, I think big corporations have abused both copyright and patent law to the point of making them a joke... But if I expect the law to protect me then I have to respect it, even if I don't like all of it

-Edit- On topic, if Franko wants to challenge Amiga Inc's claim to the AmigaOS IP, then he needs to do it properly, not through piracy but through the legal system!

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one Bloodline. We can choiose

Actually, you're wrong on that one Bloodline. We can choose to disobey a law. Its the entire core of civil disobedience. There are two ways to defeat a law that is unpopular. One is the way you mentioned (working through the political system). The other is to refuse to submit to it and fight it out in the courts.

As I have stated, I would prefer Franko take this approach, and challenge A Inc properly rather than resort to piracy.

If it wasn't for this later method (and jury nullification) prohibition would not have been as easily defeated in my country.

Well good for you!