Video of Vampire board

[nicholas]

These cores are getting good, but personally wouldn't buy one until they can do full MMU/FPU + >68020 instructions.  AFAIK none of them are fully compatible with those, yet?

What instructions do you need it to do? The 060 has less instructions for instance.

[nicholas]

are there any issues? i have mentioned, it would be better to relay on some open solution..

I believe the uaegfx driver uses the standard GPL so as long as any other driver is based upon this code and is also GPL licensed there is not much legally anyone could do about it is there?

[nicholas]

Many issues. The trouble is that P96 was not and is not open source, and the SDK for it (required to develop drivers) is neither open source. It had (and in particular still has, as the ownership has not changed) to be licensed.

I'm not sure how the UAE component came into being and who created it and whether this was done under license from Tobias and Alex, but at least one manufacturer (Elbox) reverse engineered the P96 interface without paying for the license, very much to the dislike of Alex and Tobias. Which, in one way or another, let to the halt of development. Thank you, Elbox!

P96 was a tremendous work  - it is more or less a re-implementation of a major part of the Amiga graphics.library. I believe their authors deserve a little more respect in terms of their work.

So yes, the Vampire driver is based on the proper SDK for P96, and yes, this requires licensing. And yes, they (we) want to license, and it deserves licensing.

If the vampire driver is based upon the official sdk and is licensed then it's irrelevant I guess but say I took the GPL licenced uaegfx driver and modified it to create a driver for another video card (virtual or otherwise) and complied fully with the GPL licence, I am very much legally allowed to do so and the FSF/EFF etc and their teams of lawyers would back me up 100%. Isn't complying FULLY with licences something you are very keen on?

[nicholas]

Let me clarify one thing: The UAEgfx driver consists of two parts: The GPL'd part that sits within UAE. This you can easily look into. And then there is the P96 component that talks to the P96 core and has to be installed in the emulated Amiga. I'm not sure what the status of this component is and whether it is open source. Even if it is, it does not mean that it is sufficient to replicate the SDK. The includes necessary to built it are surely not freely available.

Are header files copyrightable?  Only in the USA as far as I'm aware and even that is only a very recent ruling because of Oracle.

[nicholas]

Look, all this arguing really makes me sad. IANAL, but: If the authors ask for money for the SDK, I believe it is really fair to comply with that.  

You're just stating "arguments" to go cheap. No, sorry. P96 was good work, and it deserves some monetary feedback if the authors ask for it.

Consider how you would feel like: You created a piece of art, and all you hear from your neighbours how to get hands on it without paying. Do you see what's wrong here?

Don't release something as GPL if you don't want people to use it according to that licence, it's simple really.

PS I paid for P96 when I bought my PIV.

[nicholas]

This thread was initially really great, but turned into crap.

What is the big deal with paying for stuff you use? I honestly have no issue paying for things I use.
Stealing is why we can't have nice things.

 How is using the GPL licenced uaegfx driver in full accordance with the terms it is licenced under "stealing"?

[nicholas]

I do not know. I haven't licenced it. Ask Tobias and Alex whether this is a legimitate driver or not. And, as I said before, the uae part of the uaegfx component (written in C) is only the end-point of the 68K P96 endpoint of the driver. Whether *that* has been licensed and by whom I do not know.

Just for your information: If I'm the author, I can of course decide to change the license of some components under GPL if I like to. Or sub-license them.

So please, could you please stop to try to construct a case that P96 is under GPL, or its SDK is under GPL? It isn't. Or if you don't believe me, go get a lawyer to clarify.

Until then, could you just please be so kind and respect that Tobias and Alex did not want to put P96 under GPL or OpenSource? That was clearly their intention. Even if you do not like that.

 The P96 uaegfx driver *is* licenced under the GPL whether you like it or not. This is a fact and as long as it is used in full accordance with the terms it is licensed under there is nothing you nor anyone else can do to stop someone using it whether you like it or not.  I have not made the claim that P96 itself nor its SDK are licenced under the GPL, nor has anyone else. Please stop making false claims to win an argument, stick to facts and you can't go wrong.  The uaegfx driver was licenced from Tobias and Alex by Cloanto and written by Brian King. It is as "official" as any of the other p96 drivers (with the exception of the Elbox driver).

[nicholas]

I do not want to stop anyone from using anything. Just to make sure that you read me correctly: I am saying "I do not know". Please check again.

I'm just sick about this argument that "because the UAEgfx driver is GPL, we can just rip it, create a driver for vampire and by that avoid any payment to the authors".

No, sorry, won't happen with me. The UAEGfx driver was meant to be a driver for UAE. Not for vampire. And no, it is not the SDK and not a suitable replacement, and not a basis I would work from. In fact, I would probably avoid to work from any GPL code if I can.

 It's not "ripping" anything, it's using a work of code in full accordance with the licence it is published under. Very much legal and as I'm sure you will agree complying with licence terms is very much a good thing. It is very disrespectful of an authors wishes to use his work without complying with the licence he granted you to use it under.  Here's the announcement regarding the uaegfx driver being licenced from Tobias and Alex by Cloanto.  http://www.amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2001-10-00276-DE.html