Cloanto sues Hyperion
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > [version].[revision] Commodore style version scheme

    You mean like Commodore's Workbench 1.3.1 to 1.3.4? (See comment #112 for my previous answer to this comment of yours.)

    > like 3.2

    3.2 has been reserved for the beta version for the Walker.

    > For the first time since Commodore’s bankruptcy, everything could
    > come together under one single umbrella again.

    Escom was the last owner of both Commodore and Amiga trademarks.
  • »05.02.19 - 19:58
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    KennyR
    Posts: 880 from 2003/3/4
    From: #AmigaZeux, Gu...
    Quote:

    takemehomegrandma wrote:
    I don’t think any bridges are burnt. Cloanto could publish 3.1.4, legally this time (and hopefully in a [version].[revision] Commodore style version scheme, like 3.2), and the authors could even receive financial compensation from sales in some way.


    Dunno. From their comments, it seems the developers have nailed their flag to Hyperion's mast pretty hard and at the moment would be far more likely to join the long ranks of the "developers who worked for Hyperion then disappeared in shame" than ever come back to work on things.
  • »05.02.19 - 20:30
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    number6
    Posts: 483 from 2008/8/10
    Quote:

    Just FYI. Although this direct link functions for non-registered users, moderator moved the thread today "Amiga & Phoenix Community > Software - Cloanto buys Amiga?" itself to forum only visible by registered users.
    Prolly deemed "off-topic" for their s/w forum, so best not to link to that one, in case anyone was considering doing that.

    #6
  • »05.02.19 - 22:54
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    >> https://www.a1k.org/forum/showpost.php?p=1205395

    > Although this direct link functions for non-registered users,
    > moderator moved the thread today "Amiga & Phoenix Community >
    > Software - Cloanto buys Amiga?" itself to forum only visible
    > by registered users.

    That's a different thread. The above-linked comment is from "Amiga & Phoenix Community > Software - Hyperion vs. Cloanto, et. al. Update" thread.
  • »06.02.19 - 09:02
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    redrumloa
    Posts: 1424 from 2003/4/13
    Quote:

    Andreas_Wolf wrote:
    Update:

    "on Friday, February 1, 2019, Plaintiff Amiga, Inc. transferred to C-A Acquisition Corp., which is under common ownership with Plaintiff Cloanto Corp., all worldwide rights, title and interest in and to all AMIGA-formative trademarks, including but not limited to the “Exclusive Licensed Marks” as that term is defined in the 2009 Settlement Agreement [...], and the “Boing Ball” design mark. [...] Both entities are wholly owned by Michele (“Mike”) Consol Battilana. [...] Consequently, Cloanto and C-A Acquisition Corp. are the owners of all the “Collateral,” as defined in the Settlement Agreement, as well as the AMIGA mark."
    https://docs.google.com/file/d/1jzdHwTZ28vbMxDpgVOVQzyXSFWyBR2NE/edit

    Information on C-A Acquisition Corp.:
    https://www.bizapedia.com/nv/c-a-acquisition-corp.html (company founded in November 2018)


    Booyah! Best news in decades for the Amiga! Now if the newly reborn Amiga Inc can litigate Hyperion out of business, we can go back to having a healthy Amiga platform.
  • »06.02.19 - 16:54
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Minuous
    Posts: 161 from 2010/2/12
    @redrumloa:

    The platform will be healthier if the developer of its OS goes out of business and the sources to it are unavailable? I think not.

    Meanwhile Cloanto have done absolutely nothing for the platform except milk the users for someone else's free emulator for over 20 years, you think they are suddenly going to start caring about the platform!?

    [ Edited by Minuous 07.02.2019 - 04:12 ]
  • »06.02.19 - 18:10
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > the newly reborn Amiga Inc

    I guess it will rather be Amiga Corp. or even Amiga srl :-)
  • »06.02.19 - 21:24
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    BSzili
    Posts: 559 from 2012/6/8
    From: Hungary
    Quote:

    Minuous wrote:
    @redrumloa:

    The platform will be healthier if the developer of its OS goes out of business and the sources to it are unavailable? I think not.

    Meanwhile Cloanto have done absolutely nothing for the platform except milk the users for someone else's free emulator for over 20 years, you think they are suddenly going to start caring about the platform!?


    "developer"
    This is just like television, only you can see much further.
  • »07.02.19 - 09:41
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Intuition
    Posts: 1110 from 2013/5/24
    From: Nederland
    Quote:

    Minuous wrote:
    @redrumloa:

    The platform will be healthier if the developer of its OS goes out of business and the sources to it are unavailable? I think not.


    Putting aside the ridiculous notion that Hyperion are anything more than a publisher for one moment. There are many people who have the source code to the OS and if the new owners to the rights don't currently have the source then it's quite easy and very much legal for someone to give them a copy.
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  • »07.02.19 - 10:23
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Minuous
    Posts: 161 from 2010/2/12
    What, you mean ancient OS3.1?

    Already at least three times the OS3.1 source has been used as a starting base for a new branch (OS3.5/3.9, OS4, OS3.1.4, and arguably Walker V42 update), now we will have to reinvent the wheel for a fourth or fifth time? :-(

    (Plus another two branches if you count Hyperion's and Cloanto's updated OS3.1 releases).

    [ Edited by Minuous 07.02.2019 - 21:48 ]
  • »07.02.19 - 11:07
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Intuition
    Posts: 1110 from 2013/5/24
    From: Nederland
    Quote:

    Minuous wrote:
    What, you mean ancient OS3.1?



    No.
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  • »07.02.19 - 12:39
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
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    takemehomegrandma
    Posts: 2720 from 2003/2/24
    @ Minuous

    All sources (3.x and 4.x) are already sitting on the hard drives of the developers who can actually do anything with them. Now Cloanto brings all the foundational copyrights and all other necessary IP required to make actual products out of the sources together under one single umbrella.

    Hyperion never owned anything other than a limited license to publish, a license that they forcefully acquired through immoral ways to say the least, a license which conditions they later violated in fundamental ways thus probably (almost *certainly* IMHO) rendered it void (read the document linked to by Senex above).

    The developers can now have their work published by Cloanto instead, legally this time, and probably even get fair money from sales as well.

    You really need to update yourself on Cloanto, the biggest Amiga-supporting company still remaining active since the Commodore days. While many/most companies post-Commodore turned out to be crooks and leeches (Hyperion being the biggest one), Cloanto has never showed anything but good intentions and pure love for the platform. Their work on emulation, preservation and securing longevity of the platform (all aspects of it) since 1997 is very important and should be recognized and appreciated instead of belittled. And them managing to bring all pieces of the scattered post-Commodore Amiga platform together is a monumental achievement that few people thought would be possible but everyone has dreamt about for almost two and a half decades. And they have even invited the community in discussions about the governance, opening up for putting the OS in a non-profit foundation, even Open Source is on the table. How any of this could be considered bad is beyond me. Cloanto seems to be an angel (and the only remaining constant since the Commodore days) that hopefully just solved the Amiga "Gordian knot".

    [ Edited by takemehomegrandma 07.02.2019 - 14:17 ]
    MorphOS is Amiga done right! :-)
    MorphOS NG will be AROS done right! :-)
  • »07.02.19 - 13:11
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  • Order of the Butterfly
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    Minuous
    Posts: 161 from 2010/2/12
    @Intuition:

    You mean they are somehow going to acquire source code from H&P and/or Hyperion? How is that going to work!? Neither will sell their source code to Cloanto.

    @tmhg:

    Wow, was that intended as a joke, I don't know where to begin...!?

    Basically all they have done in the last 20 years is sell a free open source emulator, milk users dry for licences for ancient Kickstarts that they had nothing to do with the writing of (the only change they made was adding DRM), shut down the websites that are actually doing the preservation, suing the company that is actually doing development on the OS, etc. They haven't written an Amiga program for decades and see the platform purely as a retro platform to gouge money from naive users.

    They put up a paragraph or two about open sourcing it, years ago. Nothing has come of it; they have never open sourced anything in their history. The source of OS3.1 is already leaked, no thanks to them, and they don't have any OS3.1.4/3.5/3.9/4 sources.

    [ Edited by Minuous 07.02.2019 - 23:51 ]
  • »07.02.19 - 13:45
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
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    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    >>> There are many people who have the source code to the OS and
    >>> if the new owners to the rights don't currently have the source
    >>> then it's [...] very much legal for someone to give them a copy.

    >> you mean ancient OS3.1?

    > No.

    Which OS is it that "the new owners to the rights" now own the rights to that is not "ancient OS3.1"?
  • »07.02.19 - 14:19
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > All sources (3.x and 4.x) are already sitting on the hard drives
    > of the developers who can actually do anything with them.

    ...with the severe restriction that even if a developer has "all sources" on his hard drive, he can only "do anything" with his very own sources, not those of other developers just because the sources happened to be integrated into the same commercial product. Thus, Cloanto cannot get the sources of AmigaOS 4.x or 3.1.4 from one hand.

    > Cloanto, the biggest Amiga-supporting company still
    > remaining active since the Commodore days.

    Biggest? Or even only? ;-)

    > Cloanto has never showed anything but good intentions

    See comments #30 and #108 ;-)

    > them managing to bring all pieces of the scattered post-
    > Commodore Amiga platform together is a monumental
    > achievement that few people thought would be possible but
    > everyone has dreamt about for almost two and a half decades.

    Do they have more "pieces of the scattered post-Commodore Amiga platform" than Escom, Gateway or Amiga Inc. (whatever incarnation) had between "almost two and a half decades" ago and 2011 (when Amiga Inc. started to sell the "pieces" to Cloanto)? If yes, what are those "pieces" the others didn't have? Mind you, Escom had the Commodore trademark in addition.
  • »07.02.19 - 14:55
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > Walker V42 update

    AmigaOS 3.2 for Walker was V43.
  • »07.02.19 - 15:18
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > You mean they are somehow going to acquire source code from H&P
    > and/or Hyperion? [...] Neither will sell their source code to Cloanto.

    As the actual source code isn't owned by Hyperion, I guess he refers to the individual developers of AmigaOS 4.x and/or 3.1.4 who are free to give/sell their sources to Cloanto.
  • »07.02.19 - 15:41
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Intuition
    Posts: 1110 from 2013/5/24
    From: Nederland
    Quote:

    Andreas_Wolf wrote:
    > You mean they are somehow going to acquire source code from H&P
    > and/or Hyperion? [...] Neither will sell their source code to Cloanto.

    As the actual source code isn't owned by Hyperion, I guess he refers to the individual developers of AmigaOS 4.x and/or 3.1.4 who are free to give/sell their sources to Cloanto.


    Indeed. Hyperion don't own any of the code.
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  • »07.02.19 - 19:40
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    KennyR
    Posts: 880 from 2003/3/4
    From: #AmigaZeux, Gu...
    Quote:

    Minuous wrote:
    What, you mean ancient OS3.1?

    Already at least three times the OS3.1 source has been used as a starting base for a new branch (OS3.5/3.9, OS4, OS3.1.4, and arguably Walker V42 update), now we will have to reinvent the wheel for a fourth or fifth time? :-(


    Don't forget all the reinventing of the wheel in 3.1 itself, even before 3.5. Two different datatype "standards", v41 and v43. Two different large disk standards (NSD/TD64). At least two different graphics systems (CGX/P96 - older ones existed but did not survive). Several different implementations of scsi.device and of FastFileSystem. Half a dozen competing GUI toolkits. WarpOS and PowerUp. RTGMaster and many libraries like it.

    Amiga people were never good at sharing or cooperating. The autism has always been strong.

    [ Edited by KennyR 07.02.2019 - 20:24 ]
  • »07.02.19 - 20:23
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    redrumloa
    Posts: 1424 from 2003/4/13
    Quote:

    Minuous wrote:
    @redrumloa:

    The platform will be healthier if the developer of its OS goes out of business and the sources to it are unavailable? I think not.

    Meanwhile Cloanto have done absolutely nothing for the platform except milk the users for someone else's free emulator for over 20 years, you think they are suddenly going to start caring about the platform!?


    Hyperion is the leech here. They are nothing more than a publisher that has time and time again acted in bad faith towards its developers, customers and partner companies. They are currently selling an (alleged) obviously entirely pirate product. Even its core product (OS4) will be found to be illegitimate due to blatant violations of the settlement agreement. Now that Amiga Inc is once again made whole, I see Cloanto Amiga easily winning their court case against Hyperion. Hyperion is a bad actor in this space. I don't see how anyone can defend them at this point. Selling a blatantly pirate product is OK, because it is Hyperion? :smh:

    Cloanto is a good actor. Some years back I bought a digital "value edition" Amiga Forever on sale for something like $1.99. Less than $2 for all legal licensed ROMs and OS images. The Amiga Forever physical edition are perfect for people outside of the Kommunity that want a turnkey solution. Just because it isn't a product you may want yourself, doesn't make them a bad actor. Cloanto is on the up and up and have always been on the up and up. That is exceedingly rare in this space, and will be the first such owner of Amiga Inc since probably Commodore themselves. Yes, even Escom had their issues.

    -Edit-
    This is even leaving out the fact that Cloanto is now the white knight who saved Amiga Inc from insolvency. It is clearly them who paid the half million dollars to bring the company current, and who knows how much else to purchase it outright. We could be having new Amiga hardware products in the future.

    [ Edited by redrumloa 08.02.2019 - 11:43 ]
  • »08.02.19 - 16:36
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    TheMagicM
    Posts: 1220 from 2003/6/17
    Quote:

    redrumloa wrote:
    [
    Cloanto is a good actor. Some years back I bought a digital "value edition" Amiga Forever on sale for something like $1.99. Less than $2 for all legal licensed ROMs and OS images. The Amiga Forever physical edition are perfect for people outside of the Kommunity that want a turnkey solution. Just because it isn't a product you may want yourself, doesn't make them a bad actor. Cloanto is on the up and up and have always been on the up and up. That is exceedingly rare in this space, and will be the first such owner of Amiga Inc since probably Commodore themselves. Yes, even Escom had their issues.



    Agreed.

    @minus

    Regardless if its a free emulator, they packaged it all into the nice product with legit ROMS/images that it comes with. They are not just "selling an emulator you can download". If it was that easy, why dont you package something up like they are and sell it?



    [ Edited by TheMagicM 08.02.2019 - 16:43 ]
  • »08.02.19 - 22:43
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > Amiga Inc is once again made whole [...]. [...] Cloanto [...] will be the first such owner of
    > Amiga Inc since probably Commodore themselves. [...] Cloanto [...] paid the half million
    > dollars to bring the company current, and who knows how much else to purchase it outright.

    Cloanto or C-A Acquisition Corp. did not purchase Amiga Inc.

    > We could be having new Amiga hardware products in the future.

    Cloanto hasn't been known as a hardware company so far.
  • »08.02.19 - 22:59
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    KennyR
    Posts: 880 from 2003/3/4
    From: #AmigaZeux, Gu...
    Amiga IP is like the Ring of Power in Lord of the Rings. Whoever gets control of it, no matter how benevolent and well-meaning their intentions to begin with, will eventually become just as bad as Amiga Inc ever were and rise as their shadow.

    Hyperion though, have long outstayed their welcome. They've existed 21 years, which is more than half my entire lifespan. They failed at profiting by porting games to Linux, Amiga and Mac. AmigaOS4, as a product, failed. They should have quit then, but no, they just kept digging their grave deeper.

    While hardly supportive of the community even at their peak (fostering division was one of their marketing ploys), all they do now - all they can do now - is mooch off the community pay off their debts. It's destructive, at a time Amiga retro could have been blossoming. It's time they finally checked out.
  • »08.02.19 - 23:15
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    KennyR
    Posts: 880 from 2003/3/4
    From: #AmigaZeux, Gu...
    Quote:

    Andreas_Wolf wrote:
    Cloanto or C-A Acquisition Corp. did not purchase Amiga Inc.


    Hold off on that. The rumours I'm hearing say they did - for $500k. We shall see soon enough.
  • »08.02.19 - 23:19
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    >> Cloanto or C-A Acquisition Corp. did not purchase Amiga Inc.

    > Hold off on that. The rumours I'm hearing say they did - for $500k.

    Why should Cloanto now purchase Amiga IP from a company they purchased months before, meaning they now purchased what they were already owning anyway? McEwen signed the IP purchase agreement on behalf of Amiga Inc., not Battilana.
  • »08.02.19 - 23:46
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