We can't comment on the forum where this was posted, so I'm reposting this here.
So why all of a sudden have we preoccupied ourselves with this issue of corporate level IP ownership? I guess we all like to see a good fight, but why should we users care about names, brands, or IP rights to place specific program code on a specific microprocessor architecture? Have we all forgotten what owning and using an Amiga is all about? And it’s not about what we use it for, the forgotten question is why we use it?
It's not that we care which company owns Workbench or the ROMS, the companies that are restricting the free trade of what amounts to abandonware are the ones forcing the users to care about IP ownership.
There is a forced artificial shortage of working disks and ROMS that isn't helping the community to grow and even preventing it from staying at the same level legally.
There are several companies willing to restrict the flow of these vital parts of the Amiga Classic, but none to contact for licensing it.
No one in the community can get a license for distribution on the growing base of FPGA based systems, yet we can legally have our websites shut down and charges drawn up by companies with licenses that have surely expired yet continue to profit from the Amiga corpse. Who writes distribution licenses in perpetuity? Who is receiving the license fees if they are still being paid at all?
Do you not think that any remaining Amiga retailer wouldn't like to make a few bucks selling new OS kits? Sure they would, but they can only sell what they can dig up. Instead, pirates sell eproms and CDR's full of ADF's on Ebay while upstanding members of the community lose money and wither away.
It seems that calling their bluff on proof of ownership is the only way to get a straight answer as to who, if anyone, legally has the rights to license this artificially limited resource or if it has slipped into the public domain.
Once all the ancient floppies and ROM's are gone, there is no legal way to make more. Then only outlaws will be Amigans, so there is your patriotism.
