Official was used in the interview with regard to an officially Amiga branded and Amiga Inc licenced product.
Yes, noones's disputing that. I'm just saying that people reading the article understand that "official" was put in quotes because the TeronCX/A1 they refer to uses the Amiga trademark (i.e. "official" in quotes) and there can't be an official (without quotes) product targeting an open market. Nobody's suggesting that the Amiga trademark is free for anyone to use or anything like that.
If this was about e.g. a government monopoly on telephony infrastructure, then using the word official without quotes would be correct - the government owns the copper and fiber in the ground, this is the only option available for people who want to use telephony services, competition is not allowed. This is the official "option". Anyone laying their own cables would be an un-official operation.
This is not the case with a consumer product like computer hardware and software, it's an open market. There's no official product as long as there are alternatives and competition.
The TeronCX/A1 is ONE product distributed by ONE company, aimed at a market that has alternatives available.
Thus the quotation marks surrounding the word "official".
Write the author and request that they remove the word entirely if it bugs you so. You simply have to come to terms with that people who don't unreservedly and automatically agree with everything that emanates from whatever company that happens to own a certain trademark at a given time are not FUD-mongers, traitors, backstabbers or heretics.
Ralph Schimdt and Bill Buck made these allegations public themselves. IMO this should have stayed behind closed doors at time,
What? Come on! Just look at ANN. This crap was brought up and has been perpetuated by people like Hermans and fleecy ever since the MOS project was announced and long before anyone knew that Bill Buck even was still alive or had heard of something called Thendic. The embarrassing "we won't point fingers but our IP is being stolen and we'll shut you down after Sept. 1" Amiwest stunt is particularly noteworthy, and one of the more blatant examples of what Michael Garlich is referring to in the interview. Like both you and he says, if one has allegations to make you address them privately and if that doesn't work you go to court.
When Buck behaved with an absolutely stunning lack of judgement to put it mildly and published a private e-mail discussion with fleecy, then that was not about any doubts about MOS' legality IIRC, but cooperation and licensing issues.
Anyway it doesn't matter who started it. If it indeed was the MOS team, then AInc and their affiliates shouldn't have perpetuated it over the years. Everything about this affair and modus operandi stinks, and the smell is everywhere.
