I've screwed up! Can someone help me with the first disk of Escom WB3.1?

[Ral-Clan]

by kidkoala on 2006/12/15 11:26:44

but on my escom-disks it says "copyright from 1995-2000" or something, doesn't that mean copyright for my disks aren't copyrighted anymore cause escom doesn't own the rights?

I am not a lawyer, but I believe those dates are the dates that the copyright was last renewed.  Once the copyright is renewed, it extends farther into the future than those dates.

Besides, even if the dates on your disk label were the PERIOD of the copyright, the copyright was probably renewed by its holder after 2001.  You would have to look into it to know for sure.

I don't know about software, but for books, music and works of art the copyright lasts something like 50 years....and in other cases it can be renewed indefinitely (like with Disney characters & the character of Sherlock Holmes - it remains with the corporation or estate long after the death of the original creators).  In the case of computer software I'm sure it is retained with who ever buys the rights from the company when it folds.

When you buy a set of disks, a CD, etc. you do not buy rights to the MUSIC/SOFTWARE etc.  You buy a user's liscence.  i.e. you have a LISENCE (the right) to listen, use & make a personal backup of the media in question.  You do NOT own the intellectual material and have NOT bought a lisence to make copies.

If you chuck the original media (i.e. the original discs) I believe you are then throwing away your liscence as well.  You cannot legally retain and use copies or keep a backup.

I realise the above is theoretical, and could never be enforced legally.  But that's the way a court would look at it.

[Ral-Clan]

in theory also, that means that if you have a set of original disks, and a set of backups. then your original copies oxides or something and the disks no longer works, you can't use your backups cause the originals are not working anymore?

No, I think that as long as you possess the physical original disks, you can then still prove you have the legal lisence and can continue to use backups.  I was going to mention that in my original post.  You just need proof of purchase/possession.  That's why you might want to hang onto your originals, even if they are corrupt.

[Ral-Clan]

I think the license is basically the roms when it comes to workbench anyways. The kickstart roms are a part of the OS.

I wonder about this. I think that owning the ROM just gives you the legal right to own a backup image of the firmware contained on the ROM, but not the software on the workbench disks.  They were sold together, but also seperately, remember.

A whole number of OS versions can run on and Amiga with Kickstart 3.1 chips (WB 1.0, 1.2, 2.1 and 3.0 and 3.1).  If I have a KS3.1 A1200 that doesn't give me the right to download the 1.3 software if I have never owned the original disks.  I realise this is a ridiculous example, but I'm just trying to show how the OS copyright isn't necessarily tied to the KS chip.  They could be viewed as seperate things.

Same, if you owned a CDTV which came with KS1.3 chips but not Workbench 1.3, Commodore probably would not have approved of you copying your friend's WB1.3 disks.  So just because you owned a KS1.3 chip didn't give you a automatic entitlement to the OS on disc.

Anyway, all of this is hardly theoretical, pretty much ridiculous nit-picking and in reality sometimes we have to do strange things to get our Amigas running.