The legalities of using (copyrighted?) Amiga logos on websites

[JurassicCamper]

Volkswagen go mental over the use of their trademark and VW in circle logo.
Last year they ordered all third suppliers to remove any reproduction / restoration item with a VW logo on not to be sold or they would be sued for selling them.
This was items like stickers, hub caps, panels thats have the VW logo embossed in them, badges, suspension parts which had the vw logo on the box, these are just to illustrate the part was suitable for VW's.
Its crazy because volkswagen havn't made most of these parts for decades, some parts went out of production 40 years ago, so people have stepped in  to fill the gap in the restoration market and volkswagen say yes you can make these parts but dont put our logo on them..... Makes proper restoration jobs a bit of a nightmare now, especially if you have that eye for original detail.

[vortexau]

Framiga wrote:
Hi Steve,


"AMIGA and its Boing logo, are registered trademarks of Amiga Inc."

or so . . . and you are in peace with your conscience.

Ciao . . . . {snip}-

In agreement- my Home Page has:
Amiga and the Amiga Boing logo are trademarks of Amiga incorporated. All other marks, names, and logos mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

[Martyn]

DonnyEMU wrote:

The Boing! logo was adoped by A Inc. but never was an offiical symbol that was owned and used by Commodore.. Why?? Because they adopted it too, and it wasn't originally copyrighted by Commodore. But the developer of the Boing! ball demo.

Which was?  As far as I'm aware the people who wrote it were RJ Mical and Dale Luck at the 1984 CES, while working for the original Amiga Inc.

So i would have thought its copyright went with all the other stuff to commodore et al.  AFAIK anyway.

The CD32 logo should be with AInc too.

The Commodore logo/copyrights are currently held by Tulip computers (unless THAT's changed recently).


But unless your using them for profit, i think you're safe from any troubles.

[DonnyEMU]

I remember for sure (I was an original Amiga developer with CATS) and the copyright on that was owned not by Commodore but by Dale Luck.. I also remember GfxBASE (his company) used it as their logo and you had to get permission to show it. Also just because Commodore showed off the Boing! demo doesn't mean they owned it or bought the rights.. I remember that being a serious SERIOUS issue and the explanation as to why they went with the checkmark logo instead (and the boing! was never an official Commodore logo) and Commoodore P.R. style guides forbid it's use...

So I bet Amiga Inc. probably contacted him and got permission to use it (or at least you hope they did). Their version of the Boing! Ball isn't exactly the original rendering anyway so it might not matter...

It would be interesting to hear what RJ Mical and Dale Luck has to say about this.. Even if they worked for the Amiga during lorraine development, they bought the hardware. Remember the OS was brought in from the UK after Commodore had hardware. But as far as I know Dale Luck owns the copyright and back in the "day" you had to ask Dale and RJ's permission..

[Martyn]

DonnyEMU wrote:

I remember for sure (I was an original Amiga developer with CATS) and the copyright on that was owned not by Commodore but by Dale Luck.

I bow to your better knowledge on that, then.  I had no idea he owned it personally.  A lot companies have evil contracts about what you do and do not own while you're employed by them.  Even things you do in your own time!

Remember the OS was brought in from the UK after Commodore had hardware.

Only the DOS subsystem was bought from Metacomco and integrated with the rest of the Amiga OS (despite the author, Dr TIm King, claiming he wrote all of it).

In the beginning was CAOS.

[MarkTime]

@Jettah,

I don't think you understand the purpose of copyright.
It is to give a creator a chance to make money off their original creations AND to consider the needs of society as a whole...copyrights in most every country have expiration dates.  The purpose is NOT to prevent society from benefiting from those creations...but in fact, to ensure that it does transition to the public domain someday.

That is the other side of the coin, the needs of the creator versus the needs of society.  In exchange for a period of copyright, there will eventually be public ownership.

If there is no company any longer benefiting from the copyright, and if they are no longer pursuing the copyrights, then they slip into the public domain earlier...than they would have otherwise gone to the public domain.

Actually, now I'm talking about copyright, and I think we meant registered trademarks, which is a different thing, except I will say this too....they also can slip into the public domain if they aren't defended.  This is good, and the right way...if they aren't needed as trademarks anymore, the needs of society are then more important.

there is absolutely nothing wrong or sinister about it, it isn't stealing from the defenseless as you state.  Its just that Amiga Inc. is essentially defunct.  And besides these people aren't harming Amiga, Inc.

[Jettah]

@MarkTime:

Ehm, lets substitute some words and see how it than looks: Copyright becomes Car.

Essentially you than say: If you leave your car somewhere unattended for a prolonged stretch of time, than it becomes public posession...

Personally I still think that anybody taking my car, whatever state it is encountered in, is a common thief and should be dealt with accordingly.

Unless, of course, I have given permission to somebody to use the vehicle as it suits her, provided this and that, THAN she (excuse me, I am positively biased towards females  :-P ) has the right to use it.

Regards,

Tjitte

[Cyberus]

Framiga wrote:

"AMIGA and it´s logos are registered trademarks of Amiga Inc."

Those "it's" don't stay for "it is" ?

You're correct Framiga, 'It's' = 'It is' or 'It has'


['Its' viz "The cat sat on its tail"]

[DonnyEMU]

Copyrights take time to slip into the public domain however.. A copyright here from 1984 wouldn't be considered public domain. Just ask Disney or Mark Twain (Sam Clements) estate what a tricky business that all really is, with copyrights trademarks at patents..