motorollin wrote:
The problem is that OS4 is hard coded to only run on AmigaOne boards (which you can't buy) and Classic Amigas with PPC boards (which you can buy, but the OS hasn't been released). The only way to get it to work on different hardware, like a Mac, would be to either hack the OS to remove the restriction (which would be illegal) or to emulate the missing hardware so OS4 would think it was running on an AmigaOne (which can't be done ATM).
Also, even if you could get the OS to boot on a readily-available piece of hardware, you wouldn't be able to distribute it legally. So basically, we're stuffed until AInc get their act together and release something.
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moto
Actually, in the US, current DMCA exemptions include:
* Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace. (A renewed exemption, first approved in 2003.)
* Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace. (Revised from a similar exemption approved in 2003.)
Above courtesy WikipediaThis means circumvention of copy protections on works so defined is legal; redistribution itself, beyond personal archival purposes, is still controlled by good old copyright itself.
[In the case of *normal*/*real* abandonware, the publishing company is defunct and there is no one left to raise a copyright complaint. The DMCA defines circumvention as a criminal offense, and as such is prosecuted by the FBI or whoever does that sort of thing.]
The AmigaOnes used some form of onboard dongle/key, and the machine itself is out of production, so... this actually puts Hyperion in a pretty bad place on this side of the pond -- since OS4 software exists, one can raise an argument that OS4-for-AmigaOne protections *can* legally be circumvented to allow 'reproduction' (execution) of these works.
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Since OS4 is still protected by regular copyright which has not expired, this in no way makes it legal to copy OS4 to your friends or the world. It *does* make it legal to practice what used to be fair use on a personal copy acquired by legal means, to perform any cracks necessary to get the d*mn thing to run on available equipment.
In turn, said 'crack' could be distributed as a patchset to use on or with the official CDs, but since OS4 is essentially unavailable, this only (legally) helps people with toasted AmigaOnes and the time and expertise to hack on the problem.
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This analysis would suggest that something should be made available on some form of hardware (even at NeXT-level prices) to protect against claims of obsolescence. I have no idea what case law looks like if any yet exists for this type of thing; if it did come to court, a decision of DMCA obsolescence for the one version wouldn't be a big deal, but any corrolary stupidity (a failure to distinguish between the specific AmigaOne distribution and the project going forward under an active company's ownership) could set bad precedent and be a pain to appeal.
