Who owns AmigaOS?

[Ratte]

Acer

Rights and patents where bought from Escom AG by Gateway2000.
Gateway never transfered these rights and patents to AmigaInc..
They sold the brand and the right to use the AOS.

In 2007 Gateway where bought by Acer.

[Digiman]

Kickstart 0.9-3.1 ownership is al that matters. All 3 potential owners are useless and have no positive benefit to "Amiga".

[cgutjahr]

Actually, the house example isn't that bad!

Yes it is. The only thing that would be worse would be a book analogy.

Another example then; two authors writes a book together;

Oh my. Let's talk about cars instead. Car analogies rule.

Add to that that *Hyperion's contribution is merely add-ons and improvements* to "the software"

Hyperion consists of 1-3 managers, Hyperion didn't make any "contributions" to AmigaOS. 3rd party contractors did.

In fact, Hyperion have no control or influence at all over a situation where the IP might be sold...

"The IP", i.e. the product that the buyer of said IP can't name, modify or sell to end users? Correct, Hyperion can't control that. I don't think that bothers them too much.

(for the duration of the contract, to be more exact)

I.e. indefinitely.

And then the corporate entity "Amiga Inc" could then simply be terminated, along with Hyperion's "right to use" contract.

That's just bogus. Obviously, Amiga Inc can only sell what they have - rights to the IP which are licensed exclusively to Hyperion (e.g. the trademark "AmigaOS", the right to modify AmigaOS sources etc.) can not be sold to a third party.

Pluritas ... is currently accepting offers to acquire the worldwide rights to the AMIGA trademarks and associated intellectual property

Yeah, there you can buy AmigaOS, but without the right to call it AmigaOS, without the right to modify it and without the right (more or less) to sell it to end users. Sounds like a hell of an opportunity to me.

[klx300r]

I do! actually quite a few versions too:afro:

[takemehomegrandma]

Yes it is. The only thing that would be worse would be a book analogy.

Oh my. Let's talk about cars instead. Car analogies rule.

No they don't, since they doesn't deal with derivate work and shared copyrights. What's so difficult to understand? Amiga Inc is *the sole owner* of Amiga OS. Period. Hyperion owns the various additions and modifications that turns it into "OS4", additions and modifications which are *utterly useless* without Amiga Inc's IP. You could say that Hyperion owns the components they have contributed with, but it would be a blatant lie to claim that Hyperion owns OS4 (or Amiga OS). And this is the topic of the thread - "Who owns Amiga OS?"

"The IP", i.e. the product that the buyer of said IP can't name, modify or sell to end users? Correct, Hyperion can't control that. I don't think that bothers them too much.

The "settlement" contract is between Hyperion and Amiga Inc, and no-one else. I'm sure that what any potential buyer is interested in, is the IP assets, and *not* the actual company "Amiga Inc", which is the one with that agreement with Hyperion.

Amiga Inc owns "the software" as well as the trade marks, etc, this is a well known "fact" (at least it's even acknowledged by Hyperion). That's what a buyer will take home, and simply leave in "Amiga Inc" what they don't want. I'm sure that Pluritas has all the papers in order. This is what they do all days...

I.e. indefinitely.

No, for the duration of the contract between the two entities. This is the difference with a *contractual loan* of IP, and *actual ownership* of IP. Ownership *does* matter!

That's just bogus. Obviously, Amiga Inc can only sell what they have

Yes, which is *all* the Amiga IP (except Hyperion's OS4 add-ons which, frankly speaking, I think everyone can live without).

rights to the IP which are licensed exclusively to Hyperion (e.g. the trademark "AmigaOS", the right to modify AmigaOS sources etc.) can not be sold to a third party.

Again, the "loan-contract" (for it is a loan, not ownership) can only live as long as the entities who signed it is alive (or it's revoked in another way). This is the difference between loan and actual ownership, which is why *it does matter* who owns the IP.

Sure, Amiga Inc has agreed that *they* won't sell Amiga OS to end users, etc, etc. And after the company "Amiga Inc" has been successfully dissolved after the interesting IP has been transfered, I don't think anyone will have to worry that they will...

Some people sees the settlement as a victory for Hyperion. But what have they won? The right to sell a few hundred OS copies to the few X1000 owners that potentially will be here some day, as well as Sam 440/460? Not very exciting, and hardly worth the legal struggle they went through. Amiga Inc is the winner; the only thing they "lost" was the "OS4-addons". And frankly I don't think they will lose any sleep over that. They finally ended the legal struggle that postponed the sale of IP, which probably has been their goal for a decade now...

[r06ue1]

Watching this fighting between company A and B and C and D just makes me think of a pack of dogs fighting over the last scraps of meat on a long dead carcass.

[the_leander]

Watching this fighting between company A and B and C and D just makes me think of a pack of dogs fighting over the last scraps of meat on a long dead carcass.

Welcome to the Amiga community

[bloodline]

Watching this fighting between company A and B and C and D just makes me think of a pack of dogs fighting over the last scraps of meat on a long dead carcass.

A very appt analogy for exactly what has happened.

-Edit- except that there is no carcass anymore, just dust and memories.

[whabang]

AROS owns, pwns, and screws AmigaOS over any day, tbh.

[persia]

There is no IP after this long, it's all just copyright for another 30, 50 or 70 years depending on what part of the planet you live on.

[nicholas]

It has been long established that Nicholas (from these very forums) owns the rights to the name at least.

I do indeed own the names Commodore and Amiga.

I am willing to licence these names at zero cost to both the AROS project and the MorphOS Team if either party requests to do so.

This offer is open to the Natami team too.

[cgutjahr]

Again, the "loan-contract" (for it is a loan, not ownership) can only live as long as the entities who signed it is alive (or it's revoked in another way).

Please go and read the agreement again. It contains a clause that prohibits transfer of the contract without Hyperions consent, It contains detailed rules how a 3rd party buying "stock or assets" has to comply with the agreement otherwise the purchase is deemed invalid - it even contains forms to be filled out by any potential purchaser. And last but not least, the agreement specifies exactly how a bancruptcy of any of the "Amiga parties" would have to be handled. The agreement even states that Hyperion is now a "secured creditor" of the Amiga parties, and specifies how/what/when Hyperion is allowed foreclosure.

IANAL, so this might all be bogus and not worth the paper it's written on. I can't judge that (and, tbh, I don't even care anymore) - but I'm pretty sure you can't either.

[Kronos]

Acer

Rights and patents where bought from Escom AG by Gateway2000.
Gateway never transfered these rights and patents to AmigaInc..
They sold the brand and the right to use the AOS.

In 2007 Gateway where bought by Acer.

Add to that the "stupid german judge" (tm) who couldn't find evidence that AmigaOS was part the deal when Escom bought the C=-corpse years before .....

Bout NotC=USA,Amino and HyperHyper:

Amino did have the rights to sell a licence for the name "Amiga" to NotC=USA, there is no doubt about it. NotC=USA is free to bundle every free SW to their HW no matter how much fuss HyperHyper makes.

HyperHyper !might! be able to sue Amino over that licence insisiting that every such licence would have to include some no-AROS-clause to comply with that settlement:

Possible outcomes:
- the judge jails Ben for wasting his time (yeah I know, but one can allways dream )

- the judge decides that Amino fullfilled their duty out of the settlement

- the judges favors HyperHyper's view and awards them compesation .... against Amino. The NotC=USA-licence is not touched by that verdict.

[Franko]

You know something... when I joined this site I thought it was for folk to talk about the Amiga computer...

But I now see through the whole scam...

It's just a front for failed or wannabe lawyers to play "lets pretend I'm a lawyer cos I failed my law degree", or "That law degree I bought online was a fake can any other fake lawyer here advise..." :roflmao:

[bloodline]

You know something... when I joined this site I thought it was for folk to talk about the Amiga computer...

But I now see through the whole scam...

It's just a front for failed or wannabe lawyers to play "lets pretend I'm a lawyer cos I failed my law degree", or "That law degree I bought online was a fake can any other fake lawyer here advise..." :roflmao:

Actually for the past 4 or 5 years, this has been a rather nice site, where people share Amiga problems, solutions and ideas... But for some reason you have been very keen on dragging up the past. What you fail to realise is your "personal" fixation as to who owns the right to call something Amiga is a war that was fought long ago, we all lost. Now we have our beloved Amiga's, emulators and NG solutions... Which most people just happily get on with using.

Once you get over your "One True Amiga" (tm) fixations, you will probably find this place far more agreeable!

[Franko]

Actually for the past 4 or 5 years, this has been a rather nice site, where people share Amiga problems, solutions and ideas... But for some reason you have been very keen on dragging up the past. What you fail to realise is your "personal" fixation as to who owns the right to call something Amiga is a war that was fought long ago, we all lost. Now we have our beloved Amiga's, emulators and NG solutions... Which most people just happily get on with using.

Once you get over your "One True Amiga" (tm) fixations, you will probably find this place far more agreeable!

Erm... I didn't start these threads or hadn't you noticed that, I've not been dragging up the past the CUSA stuff is the present if you hadn't noticed.

The who owns what may have been fought a long time ago, but as you don't seem to be able to comprehend the simple fact that it's still going on right now with the CUSA BS.

My "Personal Fixation" as you call it, has nothing to do with the past it's about what is happening now (a case of history repeating itself).

While most people happily get on with using their Amigas, I am one of them and been doing so non stop since 1986 and have never left the Amiga to go to any other platform or emulator.

People do post Amiga hardware/software problems here and I do my best when I can to try and help them.

Strange how you always pop up in these type of threads though with your opinions and yet you now claim things were a lot nicer in recent years without them.

Why do you post in such threads then if you don't like them or you think that things aren't "nice" anymore !!!