Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Is it illegal to distribute Amithlon?  (Read 3530 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Cymric

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2002
  • Posts: 1031
    • Show all replies
Re: Is it illegal to distribute Amithlon?
« on: April 20, 2007, 02:41:55 PM »
Quite correct. Legally, all copies of Amithlon are void unless you own an Amiga yourself (or a copy of Cloanto's AmigaForever) and do not use it at the same time as Amithlon.

Practically, who gives a damn. I mean, really: the product is no longer sold, nor could it ever be sold in the form it was published; noone is able to pay the lawyer bill based on the sales of his product alone in order to ask for advice, let alone settle this matter properly in court. It's nice that we all agree on what's legal and what not, but the market itself has become so small, fragmented and muddied over the years that keeping that stiff upper lip is now much more of a nuisance rather than an asset in keeping the scene alive. Apart from a few brave companies who still back-port their main software (which has long since been moved to the Windows or Mac platform), that's all the Amiga has left, anyway. Even AmigaOS4 is basically stillborn because there is no new hardware being made for the platform. (Unless, of course, it is the new OS of that embedded gizmo ACube put out the other day.)

You can, of course, wait for as long as the law says you must until you are in the clear (70 years after the author's death, with the exception of the US where thanks to Disney you have to wait an additional 25 years), but by that time you really won't be using an Amiga anymore. Not even for hobby purposes.

The situation reminds me to some extent of the scene in Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life where the British army has just been decimated by Zulus, and the officers keep on doing what they always do, namely pretending the real world happens to other people and that there are tigers to be found in Africa.
Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.
 

Offline Cymric

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2002
  • Posts: 1031
    • Show all replies
Re: Is it illegal to distribute Amithlon?
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2007, 12:50:28 PM »
Quote
bhoggett wrote:
Quote
Cymric wrote:
Quite correct. Legally, all copies of Amithlon are void unless you own an Amiga yourself (or a copy of Cloanto's AmigaForever) and do not use it at the same time as Amithlon.

I would dispute that. People bought - and indeed sold - Amithlon in good faith for some time before Amiga Inc chose to make their dispute with Haage & Partner known. Since Amigs Inc were not unaware of the product and even demonstrated it themselves (they were also the ones who handed over distribution rights to H&P even though those rights weren't theirs to give at the time), so to say that every copy of Amithlon out there is illegal is somewhat dubious.

I'm sorry, but 'good faith' has little to do with one party not having the license to distribute another party's copyrighted / trademarked / ... work. No license = not legal. (In the strict juridical sense of the word, without all that crap about 'morals' and 'right' and 'wrong'.) Notice that I specifically allowed for a loophole: namely when a buyer 'in good faith' is able to supply the disputed software on his own without breaking any of his licenses.

What does make it dubious is the fact that AInc 'diluted' their rights  by not immediately responding to the fact that H&P distributed software without a proper license. (Although this is new to me, I couldn't find this bit in the descriptions of Amithlon's demise.) It would depend on AInc's history in defending their rights how a judge would rule: this is the reason that Apple and other companies are so incredibly quick to file scary lawsuits to even the slightest infringements of their work. If they don't, they might not have a case in the future.

All in all, I agree with you partially. It depends on how the owner is using the software, as well as AInc's efforts to protecting its copyrights to decide whether it is genuinely illegal or not. But since it will require big bucks on lawyer fees to find out for sure---big bucks everybody would rather spend on things they like, such as feeding the kitty (<--- that one, for example)---the matter will go unanswered, and will very likely remain so until the end of time.

Quote
Is it legal to distribute the ISO now? Clearly not, and no one could possibly endorse such activity or give you permission to do so. Will anyone care if you choose to ignore the law? I doubt it.

Exactly.
Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.