Workbench Disk Sets... What Would Be The Best Way To Obtain Them...

[AmigaHeretic]

Does Franko have permission from the copyright holder to distribute Workbench disks?

If he doesn't, it's illegal.

It's really as simple as that.

I think he would say yes.  I think he bases it on documentation from various Commodore sources, up to and including Petro.  There is various source supporting that Commodore basically considered the Workbench free to distribute and ended up letting anyone include the files on disks and eventually CDs.  The thought being, you already own OUR machine and OS, so you aren't copying anything anyway! Duh!  They sold ROMs and they sold physical disk and manuals, but distribution and copying was fine.  The entire disk themselves were released for some versions to public domain as well.

So yes, I believe Franko "believes" he has permission and "legal" right to have the disk available for legal owners of the OS to download and make backups.

Does he have the legal right?  I DON'T KNOW?  Do you know.  No you don't.

The only one that would know may be the Copyright holder!  If they disagree. (Which as this point they haven't said they do).  Then they could either tell Franko, or his ISP, or just take him to court.

So far it appears the Copyright holders agrees that Franko does have a right to distribute the disks.  Who are you to say otherwise exactly?

[AmigaHeretic]

Does Franko have permission from the copyright holder to distribute Workbench disks?

If he doesn't, it's illegal.

It's really as simple as that.

I think he would say yes.  I think he bases it on documentation from various Commodore sources, up to and including Petro.  There is various source supporting that Commodore basically considered the Workbench free to distribute and ended up letting anyone include the files on disks and eventually CDs.  The thought being, you already own OUR machine and OS, so you aren't copying anything anyway! Duh!  They sold ROMs and they sold physical disk and manuals, but distribution and copying was find.  The entire disk themselves were released for some versions to public domain as well.

So yes, I believe Franko "believes" he has permission and "legal" right to have the disk available for legal owners of the OS to download and make backups.

Does he have the legal right?  I DON'T KNOW?  Do you know?  No you don't.

The only one that would know may be the Copyright holder!  If they disagree. (Which as this point they haven't said they do).  Then they could either tell Franko, or his ISP, or just take him to court.

So far it appears the Copyright holders agrees that Franko does have a right to distribute the disks.  Who are you to say otherwise exactly?

[desiv]

Does Franko have permission from the copyright holder to distribute Workbench disks?

If he doesn't, it's illegal.

It's really as simple as that.

That is definitely not true..

This is copyright law.  Nothing is simple..  ;-)

It's most likely a violation of the copyright, but even that could be questionable.

In fact, it could be a legally recommended step if he has already taken appropriate actions to try to contact the legal copyright holder...

I'm not saying he has or hasn't..  Just saying..

desiv

[Piru]

In fact, it could be a legally recommended step if he has already taken appropriate actions to try to contact the legal copyright holder...

I fail to see how. Regardless whether the copyright owner reacts or not, it still is and will remain an infringement.

Trademarks need to be defended, however.

[desiv]

I fail to see how. Regardless whether the copyright owner reacts or not, it still is and will remain an infringement.
Trademarks need to be defended, however.

I didn't say it would alleviate the infringement in and of itself.

I said "it could be a legally recommended step"....

That step would be in trying to get the copyright holder to come forward.
It's not uncommon, however you have to go through the process of making serious attempts to contact the copyright holder first.

The "endgame" would be the contact of the copyright holder to get rights, or a specific deny.

I'm not talking trademarks at all here..

As I said, there is no "simple" in this, and those who think it is, on either side, are likely to be wrong..

desiv

[mongo]

There is various source supporting that Commodore basically considered the Workbench free to distribute and ended up letting anyone include the files on disks and eventually CDs.

   Workbench and Includes Licenses

Developers who wish to distribute files/commands from Workbench
or C/Asm Include files on their commercial product MUST have
a license to do so.  Distribution of the items in PD or freely
redistributable form is not allowed.  Licenses may be requested
through your local Amiga support organization, or through
CATS - Licenses, 1200 Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA., 19380.
Licenses are available for Workbench 1.3, Workbench 2.0, Includes
1.3, and Includes 2.0.  Be sure to specify which license(s) you
require and include your full PAPER MAIL address including country.
Licensing generally costs $100/year for workbench, $25/year for
Includes/Libs.

Current 1.3 Workbench licensees may also request a special
"IFFParse" amendment for distributing the 2.0 iffparse.library
with 1.3.

We expect to have some additional amendments available for
non-registered developers soon for Installer and AmigaGuide
(currently only available to regsitered developers).

http://ftp.back2roots.org/padua/text/CATS-Materials

So yes, I believe Franko "believes" he has permission and "legal" right to have the disk available for legal owners of the OS to download and make backups.

It doesn't really matter what Franko believes.

So far it appears the Copyright holders agrees that Franko does have a right to distribute the disks. Who are you to say otherwise exactly?

The copyright holders haven't stated any opinion on the matter. Don't assume that means they agree.

[LordSpunky]

You make me laugh, some of you make me sick!

So anal you are about if it is legal or not!

Are you telling me you have never driven over the speed limit? Never downloaded a film, software or music? Never done drugs?
Your that honest? You have NEVER broken the law, any law? Even a little bit? Get a f£$king life! I speak also as a musician, download my music for free, doesn't worry me one bit, it saves me the cost of burning the CD's!

And come on Franko doesn't believe he has the legal right. If anything I would say he is calling the owner out!

Up the revolution! Fight for your right as a CLASSIC Amiga user!

[LordSpunky]

You make me laugh, some of you make me sick!

So anal you are about if it is legal or not!

Are you telling me you have never driven over the speed limit? Never downloaded a film, software or music? Never done drugs?
Your that honest? You have NEVER broken the law, any law? Even a little  bit? Get a f£$king life! I speak also as a musician, download my music  for free, doesn't worry me one bit, it saves me the cost of burning the  CD's!

And come on Franko doesn't believe he has the legal right. If anything I would say he is calling the owner out!

Up the revolution! Fight for your right as a CLASSIC Amiga user!

[LordSpunky]

I've also had a thought - I like the idea of NatAmi, so don't take this the wrong way - but how are NatAmi going to get along with software? It can run original OS, so are they going to release it with original OS and if not where do we get the copies?

[Forcie]

I've also had a thought - I like the idea of NatAmi, so don't take this the wrong way - but how are NatAmi going to get along with software? It can run original OS, so are they going to release it with original OS and if not where do we get the copies?

We have sourced quite a few NOS Workbench 3.1 packages to supply with the Natami.

[LordSpunky]

We have sourced quite a few NOS Workbench 3.1 packages to supply with the Natami.

Nice, a like your style!

To change the subject a little bit - is Natami gonna cost mega bucks, and when can we buy it?!!!!!! :laughing:

[Forcie]

It is going to be quite reasonably priced considering the production quantity and component costs.

We will announce the price of the Natami when we feel comfortable doing so considering the state of the project.

[lsmart]

Regardless whether the copyright owner reacts or not, it still is and will remain an infringement.

Trademarks need to be defended, however.

+1

[antonvaltaz]

It's occurred to me... most of the time posters have been talking about a 'copyright holder' in the singular, with the assumption that Commodore was the copyright holder of Workbench/AmigaOS and it got somewhat murky after 1994.

But I'm not sure Commodore WERE the only copyright holder. For certain aspects of Workbench they were a licensee... for example, Commodore's license for the Narrator library expired in 1991 - which is why it wasn't included in later versions of Workbench. Cloanto had to license that independently, which they did for the first time in 2002. I think there were other components of Workbench for which Commodore was a licensee, e.g. ARexx and Memacs?

So to get the original Workbench disks released into the public domain, you'd probably need to get a whole list of copyright holders to contact, not just the entity which has inherited all of Commodore's copyrights. I get the impression Cloanto have done this.

Otherwise, even if you did work out who has inherited Commodore's copyrights, you'd only legally be able to distribute specially modified disks (or ADF images) which removed any component for which Commodore had only been a licensee, and not a copyright holder.

[Steino]

Nice try... :roflmao:

But such a page doesn't exist on my site, that is a very old screen grab  you have there and the link on it never even existed as I was still at  that point in time trying to track down the rights to the ROMS... :lol:

A page that "doesn't exist"? It was a public link! Of course now you conveniently removed it...

Are you or are you not "theamigacollector" on MediaFire?

Amiga ROM files like the following are linked to from your "Commodore Scotland" site (this grab is not "very old", it was taken yesterday!):

http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z406/analogfiles/Piracy/mediafire-com-amigacollector-amiga-rom-download.png

The real Robin Hood at least didn't lie...

[TheBilgeRat]

cowardly drivel

Who are you, again?  That's right, a shill account.