You do realize that you obviously have no idea what the words "copyright" and "infringe" mean?
Nor have you heard of clean room reverse engineering or BSD vs AT&T or SCO vs IBM. :rolleyes:
Nor the agreement between Fleecy Moss and AROS either.
As a last resort the AROS team are more than welcome to host their SVN on svn.commodoreamiga.ir anyway.
:rolleyes:
The irony is neither do you... As an actual University Professor that teaches copyright and patent law allow me to educate you.
1. 'Clean Room' reverse engineering requires heavily documented procedures to prove that it truly was a clean room environment. I would suggest you research AMD vs Intel when AMD was able to create Intel compatible CPUs. This required two separate rooms, a whole bunch of lawyers, and was well documented by video. Hiding in your parent's basement or closet and writing your own Kickstart or creating your i7 CPU would never hold up in court.
2. Have any of these folks looked at a disassembly of Kickstart? If they have, you automatically loose. Its a term called 'tainted' and its a very good argument. If you don't believe me, Google the Windows Source Code that was leaked awhile back and see what the Open Source people did. They ran the other way when the code was released.
The reason? If anybody working on an Open Source project that also looked at the Windows Source Code could be accused of applying copyrighted or patented features of Windows to their own Open Source Project.
Still don't believe me? What did RJ Mical do when he wrote Intuition? He stated he locked himself in a room and wrote his own code. He went out of his way to not look at other code nor features of another OS. In the early 1980s, that was ok. Would that hold up today, probably not.
3. Copyright vs Patent. You have many, many issues here with Kickstart. Let me give you some examples:
Guru Mediation Error: This is a method for displaying a serious error from the OS. The idea behind it could not be patented (showing an error message to the user). However, showing such a message with a black screen, a red flashing box, the error inside said box, and the words labeling the error could be copyrighted by the owner. Also, how that error message is generated could be patented.
More to the point, imagine you arguing to a judge or jury that you just happened to write an exact copy of how this error message is displayed to a user in you clean room environment? Not likely...
Kickstart Workbench Hand Image: That is a picture folks and is copyrighted by somebody.
Also, you can't patent the idea that a message is displayed asking for boot media but your code better be very different from that of the source.
Right Mouse Click to Display a Menu: I believe RJ Mical owns the patent for this. Using a mouse button to offer options to the user isn't patentable but the Amiga's Right Click Show Hidden Menu certainly is...
As you can see, there are many complicated issues here so I hope my point is made.
NOTES:
I am not an attorney and I'm just giving you a broad overview of the issues that are involved. Trust me, there are many more issues involved here.
I am not privy to what agreements have been made and to/with whom which would obviously change how the above issues are worked out
Does anyone care? Whether or not its legal is one argument. Whether or not anyone cares is an entirely different argument. The Amiga isn't exactly a money making device so does it make sense to sue such a small group of people. I do not know who owns what or if patents have been renewed to keep them from expiring.
Money. Lets be realistic here, the legal system is truly moderated by money. If push came to shove, would all involved have the money to fight a prolonged legal battle? That is an issue that often decides outcomes.
Why do you think the phrase "You never sue IBM" is still relevant today? They will outlast you in the legal system. I don't know who owns Kickstart (or the part there of) but do they have more money than the Kickstart Replacement folks? I have no idea but maybe.
Lastly, I am speaking from an American Legal System. If part of the code is owned outside of the US it would become even more complicated.
-P
