I think Franko is highlight here a very good question:
"Who does actually own AMIGA OS?"
I very much doubt that any of the parties claiming to own the OS can legally prove this.
The court case was not a judgment, it was a settlement.
According to Hyperion:
"the rights of Hyperion to the "AmigaOS" trademark are exclusive, nobody but Hyperion can release AmigaOS 5, 6 etc."
The name Amiga OS still exists on amiga.com, which shows that ownership is different than right to develop and distribute.
http://www.amiga.com/sales
"LET'S TALK ABOUT" (snip) "AmigaOS"
#6
OK, assuming that we by "Amiga OS" mean Hyperion's take of it, the "OS4", then here is the situation after the settlement:
Hyperion has built a house (OS4). They have built it by heavily relying on construction materials that are
*loaned* (Amiga OS 3.1), and then they added their own stuff to the construction as well of course.
Well, Hyperion actually acknowledge in the settlement that the loaned bricks and planks (Amiga OS 3.1) used to build the OS4 house are indeed owned by Amiga Inc. And then Amiga Inc acknowledge in the settlement that the house is owned by Hyperion,
*except* for the loaned bricks and planks they used to actually build the house, which
*are still* owned by Amiga Inc!
Now, who owns the house?The situation gets even more problematic if you actually consider OS4 to be true derivate work, since there are several unattended ownership/copyright issues surrounding various parts of Amiga OS 3.1.
http://sites.google.com/site/freeamiga/And there are even third party entities (like Cloanto for example) claimed to be co-authors (hence a stake holder) of Amiga OS 3:
http://tinyurl.com/yj576m7 (Page 3)
"We always had a very good relationship with Commodore, which was bundling our software like
Personal Paint with their computers. In the early 1990s we had also done some operating system improvements, e.g. to
printer drivers and DataTypes, among others. This resulted in our code being included in the 3.1 release. So,
technically (and legally), we are co-authors of 3.1."
http://tinyurl.com/yga8zlp "Cloanto Italia srl, being the publishers of Amiga Forever and a coauthor
of the operating system, obtained multiple licenses over
different versions and components of these original ROM and
operating system files, as well as over components designed to
provide binary compatibility with the original operating system. This
licensing process began before the initial publication of Amiga Forever
in 1997 (the first operating system distribution licenses date back to
before the 1994 Commodore liquidation, by which time Cloanto
already was both a co-author and a license holder), and continued for
more than 10 years, also resulting in multiple licenses covering the
same items. We felt that this was necessary because of a perceived
lack of clarity over some transactions which involved the ROM and
operating system files, and which at times resulted in controversies
(which however never affected Amiga Forever)."
So they are definitely claiming to be coauthors of the operating system, and Cloanto seems to have their paperwork in order, so they are most definitely able to *prove this*, if should be required.
I think many more like this could exist. William S. Hawes is the author of AREXX, which AFAIK Commodore included in OS 3 without his permission, which Hyperion still does AFAIK. There are others as well. Did anyone bother to ask Haage&Partner about their stance in this issue?
I think it's a valid question to raise:
how much is this settlement between Amiga Inc and Hyperion worth at all? Does Amiga Inc even have the right to make deals with Hyperion regarding the IP in the first place? It might work just fine as long as no old stake holder with his documents in order is opposing it? Like a house built of a deck of cards; it might look like a pretty construction as long as it's left alone. But as soon as someone opens the window on a windy day and let the drag in (i.e. when opportunity for real money comes into the equation), it can collapse in an instant!
OK, so this much is established: Hyperion doesn't own it, but has a contract with *the current* IP owner saying they have the right to use it.
But then what happens?
Pluritas ... is currently accepting offers to acquire the worldwide rights to the AMIGA trademarks and associated intellectual propertyPossibly a new IP owner, real money into the equation, etc! Wow...
Anyway, back to biggun's question and the point he made:
"Who does actually own AMIGA OS?"
I very much doubt that any of the parties claiming to own the OS can legally prove this.
I think this is very true!
I think it's a mess...
