Is Amiga Inc's claim to AOS valid?

[Franko]

I honestly don't believe A.Inc would be able to challenge or lay claim to anything other than purchasing the rights to use certain TradeMarks & Logos...

There are countless sites out there where you can download KickStart ROM image files and WorkBench Disk sets, now you're not going to tell me that A.Inc doesn't know or at least has come across some of these sites...

If they or whomever had and they felt they could prove this in a court of law then I'm pretty sure they would have taken action long ago to shut down such sites. As no-one has then this just confirms my belief that no-one is either able or willing to challenge this in a court of law for the simple reason being that they know they could never prove ownership and all they could prove is the right to use certain Tradmarks & Logos...

Reckon after all these years of speculation and BS that this was finally challenged and put to rest one way or the other...

Side note: Everyone should start up a website and place the KickStart ROM Images & WorkBench Disk sets on them for free download, pretty sure not many will be challenged and any who are can simply ask for proof of ownership before having to shut down their site, best of all this can all be done for next to nothing...

[Franko]

Isn't there a new law passed in the USA that allow authorities to shut down any website guilty of hosting unauthorized copyrighted content? Don't you think anyone with legitimate claims to IP would use such a law?

Wouldn't matter in the rest of world what laws the USA has passed, and even if there is such a law those claiming to own the IP would first have to prove that they did own it and somehow I don't think A.Inc would be in a position to do so...

[Franko]

I agree. I do know I don't own the Amiga IP and nobody has given me any rights concerning this IP either. That's what counts for me. I don't like the principle of doing things one can get away with.

cowardly yours,
Staf.

Well there's a start, we can rule Fats out of the ownership contention...

@ Digiman

Still doesn't matter to the rest of the planet if this law is being made in the USA courts or even by the American government, the rest of the world has their own laws and governments so such a law could never be legally enforced by the USA unless other countries governments & lawmakers agree to it...

[Franko]

Consider what jurisdiction the root DNS servers are under.

I had thought of that and again another simple answer, just make sure it isn't American based...

[Franko]

Consider what jurisdiction the root DNS servers are under.
Also consider that the RIAA is a worldwide terrorist organization.

The only RIAA I know of is the "Recording Industry Association of America", now what they have to do with the Amiga I don't know but if they are a Terrorist Organisation then bring em on I say, I've got me tickling sticks fully loaded with brand new feathers...

@ Iggy

In the western world their is no such thing as "The Land Of The Free", we're all ruled by the rich & powerful minority and like sheep most folk go along with it for fear of being fined or locked up...

It's only when you reach a certain stage in life that you suddenly realise bugger this for a game of soldiers and say sod it to the man...

At the end of the day unlike a computer game you only get one life not three and if you let what's left of your life be ruled by fear of petty laws and BS politics then that's a sad waste of anyones life...

Just remember for 99.99% of the population of this planet what we say and do in life will soon be long forgotten when we're gone, just like the countless billions who came before us, so you may as well do and say as you please in what time you have left and enjoy it, cos at the end of it all when it's game over what most of did or achieved in life amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things...

(This little ditty that I listen to just about every day reminds me of that...

[youtube]rA2-6ZlOXeg[/youtube]

[Franko]

If you can prove that X many sites have had Kickstart/Workbench files for X many years with no action taken by the owners I think you could argue that they have not protected their IP.

That's one of the arguments I would use. It has been used successfully in the past in such claims and still holds true even today...

When someone suddenly decides to claim Copyright infringement and it can be proven that they have not actively done so in recent years and let others get away with it, then they generally have their case thrown out or not even be allowed a proper hearing in the first place...

[Franko]

Someone has to own it so it's either Commodore Holding or Amiga Inc, take your pick.  As for how long before it goes into public domain, 95 years since it was written.

I really wish you would stop using American laws for your examples, USA laws don't apply the rest of the world, each country has it's own laws and length of times such things apply for... so it would depend under which countries laws the documents were signed...


Example UK copyright laws (time limits)...

http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk/copyright/Page171.html

[Franko]

AFAIK, AOS was originally coded and copyrighted in USA.  Do you have proof it was created in the UK so it would fall under UK's copyright laws of 50 years?  I didn't think so.

That's not what I said, I was simply pointing out that in whichever country the agreement was signed it would fall under that countries laws. I agree that the original CBM stuff would most likely come under US law, but what about companies like Gateway where was that agreement signed and which countries laws would that therefore be under...

[Franko]

I still don't get why this is even in question, AOS is too old to give a rat's rear end about when you have AROS code available. When Bill Buck was talking about if he had won the AI case and he got the code, he said he would offer it to the AROS Devs.  The AROS Devs politely turned him down because it was too out dated to be useful to them.  Even more so now that AROS68K and kickstart are back in development.

EXACTLY... (wow never thought I'd agree with something Dammy said)

At the end of the day who really give a furry rodents bottom about any of this BS...

In the words of this jaunty wee ditty "It's all a load of Bollocks & Bollocks to it all"...

[youtube]WEx_ByPS9xQ[/youtube]

[Franko]

Awe... its a dull Tuesday night and I can't even get a decent argument round here, I've got about 400 channels of shit on the TV (only thing worth recording was the new series of "Deadliest Catch" to watch at about 4:am when I have me dinner)...

Just finished RetroBrighting all me old VIC 20 & C64 cases and started on my miggie cases now so I aint got any space left and am surrounded by froth and UV lamps (getting a nice tan though) so I've got nowt better to do tonight than hang around here chewing the fat with all you lovely peeps...

Could be worse, I could be over the road with a white sheet on me napper putting the willies up old Mrs Johnstone through her bedroom window... :eek:

C'mon Iggy stir things up a wee bit cos the other side have chickend out with the same old replies and quotes over and over again...

[Franko]

Frankly Franko, they can't counter they argument that AOS is an abandoned work. There is no ownership claimed for this product until three years after the copyright holder was dissolved.
Bloodline's right. It's a tainted property and by all rights its copyrights should not be valid.

BTW - What's Mrs. Johnstone look like?

Bit like this on a normal day... :eek:



But she polishes up well when needs be...



Seeing as no ones got any good counter arguments, anyone fancy a game of I Spy...

[Franko]

Ok... seeing as no one wants to play I'll just have to play with meself here...

Here goes...

I Spy With My Little Eye... something begining with "M"...

[Franko]

@ Iggy

Oooh... Second time in 24 hours that I've nicked your medal (Gloat... Gloat...)...

Just wondering you've been doing a lost of posting over recent times, have you retired like meself and also got way too much time on your hands...

[Franko]

So I rang up Gateway (Acer) and asked them what they thought about me (on franko's behalf) having a right to on sell Amiga OS and kickstart, and they said "what's a meega?"

I can't ring up Amiga Inc as they are no longer incorporated and they don't have a phone number.

So I reckon it's either Nicholas or Franko who own it now.

Not sure if you're having a laugh here but did you really call Gateway/Acer... :confused:

I'd be more than happy to openly make free (again) Kickstart ROM images and Workbench Disk Sets for everyone to download on my sites instead of having them hidden away (where they are just now) for only those in know to find...

As I've said before when they were available for the world to see I never got one complaint form anyone claiming to own them and asking me to stop it or face legal action...

The only complaints I got were from the moaning minny copyright mafia on here who don't own any of it demanding the link to my site be removed and I should be banned...

I'd be very interested in calling Gateway myself if that's the reply you got and then being able to decide if I should plaster my homepage with nothing but Free downloads of KickStart & Workbench Disk Sets so that everyone can have access to them...

As I keep saying it's way past time all this was settled one way or the other and to me the only way that's going to happen is to force whomever can genuinely prove ownership to come forward and demand/threaten that any sites doing so will face legal action which I am more then willing to challenge in a court of law...

[Franko]

It would be an interesting test to see if Hyperion will live up to their AI agreement or not.

I reckon it's worth a go if it will help solve all this confusion once and for all. As it's obvious no one is ever going to tell the truth in this matter until a legal challenge is made in a court...

At least then one way or the other the truth behind who can genuinely lay claim to what would finally be know and perhaps all of us Amiga fans can finally move forward...