@bbrv:
First, why the smiley next to my hometown? yes, most people familiar with computers know that Microsoft has its offices here. But if I look across the street from my apartment I can see Nintendo's offices, right next to Digipen, the videogame school. Walk a bit and you can see S3's offices. Drive half an hour (not an unreasonable commute) and I'm in Bill McEwen's office. You have no idea if I'm even employed right now, the recession hit this state pretty hard. You are using innuendo to try and discredit me ("oh no, he lives right next to the Beast - he obviously works there, probably in the 'crush the competition' division"), and I don't appreciate this.
Secondly, here is a cut'n'paste of your post at ann.lu:
Here is something for you all to consider...;-)
Thendic (and all affiliated companies) hold a valid worldwide right and license to Amiga DE, the "Amiga" patents, and all associated copyrights and trademarks. This Agreement was signed between ourselves and Bill McEwen on 10 November 2000. The Agreement remains in effect today.
Who knows what the future could hold?!
Best regards,
Raquel and Bill
So, what *exactly* does that mean? If you say something like "we have rights to use these licenses, so we plan on doing
", that's an announcement. The announcement is whatever you're planning, the licenses are just a means to an end. Simply saying that you have the licenses is a means without an end. This does not make sense so most people will try and imagine what that end is. If those people are the ann crowd (not that I have anything against them, but they *are* excitable), you end up with all sorts of weird theories and misinformation flying around. Add to that the tone of the message, ie "we have a signed contract, so we can use the name 'amiga' whether you want us to or not'" and you are guaranteed an 100+ post thread. Lots of bad stuff flying around and your hands are completely clean - you just made an innocent little post, it was all those other people who blew it out of proportion.
Next, the paragraph you keep on mentioning - I bet that you'd get in trouble if you just posted it here, since it's probably confidential. If so, why mention it? if you feel you must make a response on the forum do so, but keep 'secret' stuff to private mails (post something like "Bill, I believe you're incorrect - see the personal mail I sent you"). Anything else is more speculation waiting to happen.
To finish my little rant, here is Bill McEwen's reply to your post on ann:
In Reply to Comment 17:
I am sorry to report that the statements made here are very misleading and incorrect.
The contract mentioned was for AmigaDE on Windows CE. It does not in ANY way have anything to do with patents, or our IP.
Amiga, Inc. is the only holder of our IP
Regards,
Bill McEwen
Please stop trying to use the 'court of public opinion'. If you have something you're working on, sort it out with the relevant parties in private and *then* make an announcement. If you're genuinely trying to bridge the two camps then I apologize, but your current attempts at online diplomacy are causing more harm than good.
