AOL (Amiga On Linux)

[Rodney]

Sorry if it sounded like a dumb question guys, but what im trying to say is, i dont worship the Amiga, infact, im only midly interested in it. I one of those people who see a good thing in any OS be it Windows with its support, MacOS with its gui and some nice Apps, linux with its stability and configurability, BeOS with its OO and AmigaOS with its resourse friendly responsive OS.

I wasnt thinking about how "cool" it would be to illegaly run AmigaOS4 on foreign hardware, but how cool it would be to get my AmigaOne and be able to run linux, MacOSX and AmigaOS4 all at the same time, on the one machine. I know this would be breaking the MacOSX licence, i wasnt sure that this would be breaking the AOS4 licence, seeing though it'll still be running on an AmigaOne. But i guess it does? so there goes that idea!

Maybe it'll be good to get a port of MacOnLin for the Amiga then? MacOnAmi? That also sounds like a great idea.

Anyway,  thanx!

[MarkTime]

Rogue wrote:
@Rodney
This might or might not work, depending on how someone hacks MOL to get the Cyberstorm PPC version working.

However, this does violate the AmigaOS 4 licence as much as it violates the OS X licence to do the same on MOL. From the Apple Software Licence, paragraph 2:
"This licence allows you to install and use the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled or Apple-licenced computer at a time".

@Rodney

MOL does not violate the Apple license, because most versions of PPC Linux are, indeed, running on an Apple-labled or Apple-licenced computer.  It is only a tiny fraction of PPC Linux that runs on non-Apple hardware.

If you ran Mac OS X on a pegasos or AmigaOne, then you would be breaking the licensing agreement.

But its important to put things back in perspective with all these piracy paranoids running around.  The vast majority of MOL use is completely legal.

And, if you used an improved version of MOL to run AOS 4, and your copy of AOS 4 that came with your AmigaONE ran in that emulation environment, that is perfectly legal.  And it does not break the DMCA...the DMCA clearly allows for breaking copy protection scheme, if the copy protection scheme is preventing the user from using the software for legitimate purposes.

As has been told to Hyperion repeatedly, they are only scaring the lawful users...the pirates will pirate...its the lawful users that are being scared from using the software for legitimate purposes, such as the one you outlined.

[xeron]

You've got your copyright laws confused. Traditional copyright law enables you to defeat copy protection schemes in order to legally excercise your right to "fair use".

DMCA criminalises ANY action (or any product) that may disable copy protection schemes.

For example, under the DMCA it is technically illegal to manufacture or sell marker pens in the US, because they can be used to defeat certain forms of CD audio copy protection, even though they have legitimate other uses.

(incidentally, CD audio copy protection inconveniences only legitimate purchasors of music. Case in point: I downloaded a pirate copy of the Foo Fighters new album. I burned a CD with the MP3s, and I could use them in a portable MP3 player etc. if I wished. I decided the album was worth buying, and so I did buy it. The legitimate CD won't play in my Amiga, because the copy protection causes the drive firmware to crash. More information here: http://www.ukcdr.org/issues/cd/quick/ ).

[MarkTime]

You are correct, I did confuse the old fair use doctrine with the new DMCA.

Nevertheless, if OS 4 ran unmodified on an AmigaONE, even if it is in the MOL environment, rather than directly booting off the harddrive, it is still not a violation of the DMCA in itself.

Hyperion would have to draft an EULA that specifically prohibits it....if they were only, say, as hateful as Apple Inc and stated it must run on Amiga branded or Amiga licenseed hardware, then
OS 4 could run within MOL on an AmigaONE as I stated.

But...you are right, I cited fair use, and fair use is no longer relevant.

[Seehund]

Rogue wrote:

Your post contradicts itself completely. The first paragraph says that you cannot get it separately from hardware, while the second says you can buy it for CSPPC's.

I think you're splitting hairs now. The CSPPC version is as stated the only exception from the rule. I don't think ancient Amiga hardware has much bearing on all this. People already own Amigas and PPC accelerator boards, it would have been funny to see anyone trying to justify a licensing/bundling/dongling requirement that would make people have to go out and buy another CSPPC... "You aren't sure that the one who sold you that old board will give you support, we can't sell you AmigaOS!"

*Any* OS is targeted at a specifc set of hardware. Even Linux. You may succeed in porting it to another platform, but don't pretend that this will happen automatically.

Sorry? I don't see anyone pretending anything like that. I really think that everyone is aware of those obvious and relevant technical issues.

AmigaOS 4.0 is currently being targeted at Teron boards and CSPPC-equipped Amigas. The restrictions I and others are talking about are that customers aren't allowed to buy a Teron board from anyone they like, and that any other hardware which future versions of AmigaOS might run on will have its market restricted in the same way. A hypothetical "someone" must get a license for a (legal) port to such hardware to happen in the first place, and even if that happens AmigaOS users would still only be allowed to buy their hardware from that "someone". These are the obstacles, shortcomings and restrictions that IMO could be avoided, in contrast to the mentioned real technical issues of porting an OS to a certain piece of hardware.

[mikeymike]

Btw, can we not use dirty acronyms like "AOL" for other purposes, and just use the word "emulation" for its intended meaning? Next you'll be saying AmiUAEWin or something equally dumb :-)

[T_Bone]

T_Bone wrote:
But this would go against the whole "We need to protect the users from themselves, and keep them from being temped to run other OSes" mentality of Hyperion.
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> Your comment clearly indicates that a protection of some sort is of utmost
> importance.

It is, that's already been made quite clear, it's even part of the license agreement.

> For the record, nothing in AmigaOS 4 will keep you from running Linux or MacOS or
>  what have you on the same machine. If you claim that, you are wrong.

In case you hadn't noticed, the scenario we were discussing was running AmigaOS4 in a Virtual machine.

> For the record, all protection methods are aimed against piracy. However, I don't
> see any overwhelming reason to try and get OS 4 to run on anything else but
> supported hardware.

In other words, I was correct. Virtual hardware is certainly not licensed hardware, regardless what it's running on. Running AmigaOS4 in a Virtual Machine would also have to circumvent anti-piracy measures. Again, this wouldn't be supported.

> I would prefer if you could use common sense before posting.

I would prefer it if you would keep technical issues technical, and not personal. Let's also note that I was right on the money, and you backed it up, unless you're going to tell me that in fact Hyperion will support this configuration. I'll admit I made a political stance, but that's far short of your brow beating, and isn't personal in nature.