If AInc went bankrupt...

[Caius]

Warning: Complete sidetrack follows...

I wonder how much hate mail Bill receives per week.

[AccyD]

Getting back to the headline:

If AInc went bankrupt...


.......would anyone notice or care? :-D

[PPC]

Nobody would care if they did kick the bucket, i would be glad if something good can happen to Amiga OS 4.x
And at this point the situation could not be any worse.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

PPC wrote:
Nobody would care if they did kick the bucket, i would be glad if something good can happen to Amiga OS 4.x
worse.

And Hyperion?

[freqmax]

Someone could buy their IP and sue left & right (SCO style).
So it could get worse.

Another approach is to convince Acer (or whoever else have the
IP) to grant another license. And take the lawsuit from Amiga Inc as cost of business. One could speculate aswell that a lawsuit would break them financially before they would gain anything.

[arnljot]

Another approach is to convince Acer (or whoever else have the IP) to grant another license. And take the lawsuit from Amiga Inc as cost of business.

It must have been Gateway who made the original contract with then Amiga Inc.

I'm sure they were paranoid enough to put in some provisions in the contract so that they could revoke it or divert from the terms if they like.

Like for instance behaviour that devalues (then) Gateways property, the IP. So then Acer could argue that a lot of people at various forums are angry with them, and that to limit (further) damage to the Amiga trademarks and IPs they (revoke and?) grant a new license to Hyperion, ACube and DiscreteFX.

It would be interesting what such a scenario would do to AINC and the court case. This could perhaps happen without AINC going bankrupt.

"All it would take" was the three mentioned companies being willing to put in the effort, and Acer to be willing to listen.

[persia]

Yeah, I suppose, given that anything before 1988 is dead in patent terms - that doesn't leave much, if anything, of the original companies IP.  What, legally, is left to stop a company from producing a box that will run Amiga OS?

[Tension]

like the Draco??

[AMC258]

 :idea:

Once there was the Minimig....  Now, there's the DinkyDraco! :lol:

[A6000]

When the patents expire, it might be possible for third parties to build new amiga compatible hardware, they could not call them amigas but people will know what they are capable of.
So, does AInc have the right to say that amigaOS must not be used on new amiga compatible hardware?
I know they could engineer a version of amigaOS so it would not run on certain hardware, but can they say older versions must not be used on these new compatibles?

[Colin_Camper]

I know they could engineer a version of amigaOS so it would not run on certain hardware, but can they say older versions must not be used on these new compatibles?

IFAIK, In the USA they now can change their licensing for classic Amiga OS and stop people doing this in their own home with legally bought AmigaOS and minimig.

In the EU they could theoretically stop bundled sales but, unlike the USA, we can still fiddle and tinker with our own stuff in the comfort of our homes without being accused of being criminals.  :-)