Amithlon FAQ update

[SlimJim]

Amiga-news.de reported on the change of certain points in the Amithlon FAQ-page to reflect the current situation of Amithlon.


Q: I want to have it!

A: That's not possible right now, unfortunately. I explained the license problems in the statement. However I hope to have a new, improved, and completely licensed version available soon.

Q: And when will that be for sale?

A: Hopefully very soon, after the unhappy stuff is
 cleared up.

Q: Does Amiga Inc. want to publish it?

A: Yeah, they want to. Things have changed. Nobody
is happy about it, least of all me. Amithlon was always meant to be a complete solution, with fully licensed ROMs and AmigaOS. Haage & Partner apparently didn't share this position, but I am personally not ready to compromise in this regard.

---

amiga-news.de comments that they have tried to reach H&P for their view of the situation, with meager results:

[amiga-news.de:] "Unfortunately it's not possible for H&P to speak because the signed contracts between Bernie Meyer, Harald Frank (VMC) und H&P clearly state these internal matters not be discussed publicly.
- And Bill McEwen can't or won't speak either. "

Orignal post:
http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2002-04-00154-EN.html

[System]

if amiga inc publish it in the future i wonder how this will affect, if it does, those who have previously bought it.

[Kronos]

I paid 300DM for it at a time when AInc still called it "a fully licenced product".
If this wasn't true thats their problem not mine !

[seer]

if amiga inc publish it in the future i wonder how this will affect, if it does, those who have previously bought it.

Well, I don't think it wil affect the buyer, at the worst, you won't get support from Amiga Inc and H&P.. So, no more updates ?

[bhoggett]

if amiga inc publish it in the future i wonder how this will affect, if it does, those who have previously bought it.

Bernie's position on this is that existing owners have bought it in good faith, and should thus be treated as fully legitimate users, with full rights to support and upgrades. He also feels these users should have free updates for now, as they have spent a fair amount of money in the first place.

However, there may be some flies in the ointment: Amiga Inc have not been paid for the licenses on existing Amithlon sales, and may feel they should make users pay for the update that is currently in the pipeline.  Also, H&P are the only ones with any evidence of who is and who is not a registered Amithlon user, and - understandably if not honourably - they refuse to divulge those details to Bernie.

NB: www.amithlon.net seems to be devoid of files at the moment. Whether this is a scheduled rebuild by Bernie or something else is not yet clear...

[System]

Have no fear,  I'm sure all the parties involved will  get together to create a very interesting solution  

--EyeAm

[Chathurawind]

Well, again this just goes to show you more of the scams that both H&P and AInc are running on the Amiga community!  They will end up beating the developers out of their just rewards for a nice piece of software by pressuring them with a lawsuit.  Knowing full well, that he is unable to pay large sums of money out for legal defense!  What does this bring to mind to you folks?  "Holy Flashes of Microsoft Batman!  This has the same MO as that evil company we know that does things like this to people & other companies!"    This is all starting to get a really bad smell to it folks!

O'Malley   :-?

[Chathurawind]

seems like there are patch updates located at this url:

http://www.amithlon.net/en/amithlon_updates.shtml

as i just downloaded them, why do you think there's no files up there?

kevin orme
amiga university
www.amigau.com

[bhoggett]

Well, again this just goes to show you more of the scams that both H&P and AInc are running on the Amiga community! They will end up beating the developers out of their just rewards for a nice piece of software by pressuring them with a lawsuit. Knowing full well, that he is unable to pay large sums of money out for legal defense!

Aaargh!!  I really don't know how many times someone will come up with this stupid interpretation of events.

Let's inject some reality serum here:

Bernie has kept in regular e-mail contact with Amiga Inc ever since last year's AmiWest show. At the beginning of March this year, Amiga Inc informed him as part of such an exchange that - as far as Amiga Inc are concerned - Haage & Partner do not have a license for the Amiga Inc IP they are distributing with the AmigaOS XL package. There was no suggestion of a threat against Bernie at this or any other point.

However, once he was in posession of this knowledge, Bernie had two choices: (a) do nothing, assuming things would just sort themselves out, or (b) take action to cover himself in legal terms, and then re-evaluate H&P's performance as publishers and whether they have acquitted themselves of their contractual obligations.

IMO, H&P have failed in their duties by not providing the license - the main reason why H&P were allowed to publish was because they were supposed to provide a fully licensed product - by choosing a distribution method which cut their own costs but reduced overall sales, and finally by not providing the level of support they are contractually bound to supply.  If Bernie happens to share this opinion, he may well see the licensing issue as a good opportunity to divest himself of an incompetent and dishonest publisher, thus freeing Amithlon to progress without being held back by a parasitic attitude.

Any venoumous remarks that may be read into the avove paragraph are purely my opinion of course.   ;-)

Amiga Inc are not the bad guys here, though it would probably help if they were to make some kind of public statement with regard to the situation.

[bhoggett]

as i just downloaded them, why do you think there's no files up there?

There was a technical problem on the server, now thankfully resolved.

www.amithlon.net is back up and running.