Legal Status of Amiga Clones (past and present)

[Piru]

@orb85750

I just found this from lawmart.com:

"The copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing. For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine."

So anyone could make the chip based on your design (if it's not patented) and sell the resulting product without owing you any royalty. Your copyright protects you against someone else publishing your work, but not against someone producing the product you designed. Only a patent protects you there. (And the maximum patent lifetime is 20 years.)

You're confusing patents and copyright, and making incorrect conclusions.

If someone was to produce clones, they need to produce their replacement content. They cannot use the original content (or "form") in the chips.

Example: To produce kickstart replacement you are allowed to use the Autodocs and other documentation about the functionality as a base of your clone, even though the autodocs and documentation themselves are copyrighted (obviously you cannot use any of that copyrighted material directly, but the knowledge you gain from the docs is not copyrighted. This is what the original quote of "For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine." means).

You're allowed to reverse engineer the original binary and produce a code that does the same (the limitations on reverse engineering depend on local law, EU has less restrictions than USA for example).

Such reverse engineering was done while making MorphOS (and AROS).

Patents may prevent some things being cloned, however. For example MorphOS (and probably AROS, too) intuition didn't support toggling multiple menu items while the menu was open. This particular patent has expired now, and multiselection is possible in the latest MorphOS versions.

[Piru]

@orb85750

Define "chip design".

I think this is what is confusing everyone here. In my opinion that includes the content of the chip (the copyrighted material).

I think your definition is different?

[Piru]

@orb85750

Right, I think I stated previously (twice) that a copyright does protect any software stored on the chip -- of course. However, nothing else about the chip can be protected by anything other than a patent, if one is granted.

Fair enough so far.

Circuits cannot be protected by copyright law, but the *publication* of the schematics can be protected.

But what if the circuit is the software? Say custom chips such as Agnus or Denise? I'm fairly certain that here the actual circuit is copyrighted. Circuit board or schematics, aren't they just two different ways to represent the same thing?

The actual transistors, gates and methods of putting them together are not copyrighted, but might be covered by patents.

[Piru]

@orb85750

Again -- and now I am repeating myself for sure -- devices are specifically exempted from copyright law. You would have an uphill battle in court arguing that your circuit board is not an electronic device, but is instead the "medium" for your copyrighted work!

I'm sorry but you're seriously confused here. The "device" in this copyright exception is not what you think it is. I suggest your read those passages again with thought ("What else could 'the device' mean here?").

Copyright doesn't depend on the form of the "writing". Be it on paper, on electronic media, or on a circuit board: The copyright is always the same, regardless.

Anything else would open a gaping hole that could be used to circumvent copyright.

[Piru]

@orb85750

Do you do agree that anyone may build such a device exactly according to a given schematic, provided that there is no patent granted (or pending) for the design?

I don't. Assuming the design is not public domain, or that the design is not licensed properly, then it would be copyright infringement. This is how I see it: whether as printed schematic or as circuit board it's just representation of the same thing. Then again IANAL.

I guess it depends on if the hardware is deemed to contain "a program", written work in itself. Something like a ROM chip certainly does (the actual ROM content is included in the mask of the ROM). Empty (E)EPROM or flash chip doesn't.