Hi CodeSmith...
We posted this on another thread here on
www.amiga.org:
Not a Fake!
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Here it is again:
Thendic holding Amiga licence and patents? : Comment 21 of 22
Posted by bbrv (212.198.0.93) on 24-Nov-2002 16:13:18
Here is an official statement that we have made before on Amiga-News:
http://www.amiga-news.de/archiv02/020417_interview_bb_pt.shtml It says (toward the end): Thendic France: We will release and promote the products whether there is cooperation with Amiga Inc. or not. They have chosen their principal direction with AmigaDE. Great. We have tried to work with them, but we want to do what we want to do -- not what they want to force us to do. It would be wonderful if we could work together, but this is not a precondition for us to move ahead. We would like to cooperate with Amiga. We (Thendic-Germany) were the first organization to achieve an Amiga DE license (our lawyers wrote the license agreement) and we would have been happy to extend our current license --and pre-pay royalties -- but we unfortunately cannot get them to see things our way. Amiga belongs to them so that is their call. We are going ahead anyway.
@all concerned
We signed this agreement with Bill McEwen on 10 November 2000 when we were not competitors, but rather partners. The Agreement gives us a worldwide license for AmigaDE (not the "classic" OS) and use of the "Amiga" patents and trademarks. Under the terms of the Agreement we even have the right to sublicense under certain terms and conditions (which are actually very easy to meet). What has happened since that time is unfortunate, but the Agreement still stands. If we thought there was something useful we could do with Amiga DE we would.
If there is anyone interested in working as a *paid* Developer for this "special" project, that is, bringing MorphOS and Amiga DE together then please contact us. It might be interesting to do, but as before and for the moment now, we do not see the value of such an effort. Please convince us otherwise if we are incorrect.
We appreciate ANN very much. The quality of the posts here can be as good or bad as they are anywhere else. ANN has been of great assistance to us over the last year. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Raquel and Bill
P.S. We appreciate
www.amiga.org too!
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Contrary to the comments here there was nothing misleading about the original statement on ANN. It says we have a license to DE and we do. It says we have a license to use the Amiga patents in the devices we develop and we do. It says we can use the trademarks in conjunction with these devices and we can. If AmigaOS5 is supposed to be a magical merger of the OS4 and DE, why couldn't MorphOS and DE? Well, we do not really think this is a particularly useful direction, BUT we are willing to fund the development of this IF there is someone out there that can actually do it. Please send us an email.
Mike Bouma, you pass yourself off as an impartial journalist. You are not. If you had read the 10 November Agreement then you would not that you are VERY incorrect in your statements. You will also notice that Ben Hermans has not responded to the subsequent post we made in the ANN thread. He does have a copy of the Agreement and he knows we are quite correct in our statements. Further, if you have read it, how? Did someone who had signed an NDA let you read it? The Agreement is valid. There are no royalties currently due. Your claims are wrong and *your* statements as usual distort the truth.
Back to Mr. CodeSmith and Bellvue, Washingtom :-), this statement DOES mean something. We "put our money where our mouth is." Can you do this development? Can you find us someone who can do this development and/or who can really explain why it would be useful to do this? What do our statements have to do with FUD? We made this agreement with Amiga Inc. in a POSITIVE spirit -- no one forced Bill McEwen to sign the Agreement. What is wrong with trying to resurrect that cooperation? Yes, we do think the Message Boards are very useful to understand the various opinions. That is why we post. If you can try to understand what we have posted here, we will sincerely try to answer to your objections.
We invite Bill McEwen or Fleecy Moss to post here, on ANN, MooBunny, or even MorphOS-News. You have not answered our constructive emails, so post here. How about a genuine response and not real FUD about the legality of MorphOS for example.
Finally, for all of you that are so quick to criticize the use of these Boards to publicize opinions or ambitions, what are you doing? How does the field of action look from the bleechers? Worse, how about those anonymous folks who do not even have enough guts to say "here I am," but throw mud from hidden positions with no intention of responsibility or accountability. Who is a "Punk?"
This community still has plenty of potential. We are making a genuine and diligent effort to pull some of this back together. The Genesi Team have spent quite a bit of money, expended resources and devoted significant time to enable the success of the Pegasos and MorphOS -- these are originally created products. Any of you laid out a working PCB lately? How about an OS? Who is "leeching" from who? Ask yourself, "what have I done today to be part of all this," irregardless of which "side" of the arguement you take? If you can do something creative and productive, we have a place for you. Our team gets a paycheck and will be rewarded with a proportional amount of the success. In the meanwhile, if we can figure out ways to bring this creative community together again we will. When the Slashdots thousands arrive (as they did at
www.morphos-news,de this past weekend), it would be better for them to see at least the appearence of a united front. Maybe, we could agree to disagree and leave it at that.
Sincerely,
R&B
