> is this the message you are referring to?

If that's the message takemehomegrandma was referring to, then yes ;-) The linked amiga.org thread still has the message quoted by amigadave, vox and takemehomegrandma, btw.

Quote:

Yes, that’s the one. We were many who read it shortly after it was written. My theory is that Matt Leman also read it, picked up the phone and called Trevor, learned about the derailed Ben Hermans situation and said: “let’s do this you and I instead”. Then he returned to Amiga.org to write: “This is a hoax. I spoke with Trevor today discussing business matters.” Now when we know more about the Ben Hermans situation regarding the AmigaOne leading up to that point, and how the Leman/Dickinson cooperation was formalized shortly after, I hold this explanation as more plausible than their “the account was hacked” explanation. Hacked? Really?!

Quote:

Post was dated January 10, 2012.

a day later
There's also another thread detailing how many common password were used on Amigaworld at the time, specifically "Amiga", which Trevor had used along with others.

All I can say is that I trusted the staff. *shrug*

#6

@takemehomegrandma

the issue that matters

#6

Quote:

When I first heard about this on Moo the theory was the mentioned then too, and my initial reaction, (and the opinion that I held for years later) was that any idea of conspiracy was all very far-fetched. But like you, I've been warming to it recently as a result of all these hints from behind the scenes.

Problem to the theory is, as number6 points out, the AWN staff are adamant that it wasn't Trevor who made this post. I'd like to know exactly how they know this: perhaps a logfile showing IP addresses.

[ Edited by KennyR 20.07.2019 - 20:10 ]

Quote:

The dates simply don't make sense.
tmhg said:
Quote:

about a message written in January, 2012. But Amigakit and A-eon Technology were already taking orders for X1000 in 2011. See the problem?

#6

Quote:

Yep. Well, it was always about separating the signal from the noise. Not every conspiracy theory is true, and not every apparently strange action has an ulterior cause.

Maybe I'm just in denial that anyone would ever use 'amiga' as a password in an Amiga site.

@number6

I’m not saying you are wrong per se (I don’t have any knowledge after all, merely speculations), but AmigaKit (as a dealer) was *always* the exclusive official distributor of X1000. Even for the betatest program; when the first ever production run of X1000’s had been made (in August 2011 IIRC) Varisys sent the batch directly to AmigaKit AFAIK, and nowhere else. Same with “First Contact” later the same year, that the general public could order from AmigaKit. So it is true that AmigaKit was there from the beginning. As a dealer and system builder. Then came January 2012. And after that, the new A-Eon (without Ben Hermans but with Matt Leman) was incorporated early April 2012, right?

Do you have a date (roughly) when the Trevor and Ben Hermans cooperation finally broke down? Like, was it within the first 10 days of January 2012?

Quote:

while waiting for delivery of CPUS

Added: Some other dates that might help you. During the course of the lawsuit against Hyperion VOF:
Hyperion converts to C.V.B.A. on April 15, 2009
A-Eon (Belgium) formed 2 days later
2 years later Evert states (about this time period above):
Quote:
Source

#6

> My theory is that Matt Leman also read it, picked up the phone and called Trevor, learned
> about the derailed Ben Hermans situation and said: “let’s do this you and I instead”.

By his own admission, Matt Leaman / AmigaKit indeed did "help get the project back on track", as more than just the primary X1000 distributor but not yet an A-Eon shareholder and/or director, when Hermans left A-Eon CVBA in a mess. But this happened already in December 2010, so more than a year before the "account hack" incident.

> I hold this explanation as more plausible than their “the account was hacked” explanation.

The problem of your explanation is that it contradicts the known timeline.

> I've been warming to it recently as a result of all these hints from behind the scenes. Problem
> to the theory is [...] the AWN staff are adamant that it wasn't Trevor who made this post.

As if this was the only (or biggest) problem to this theory...

> The dates simply don't make sense.

Exactly.

> AmigaKit was there from the beginning. As a dealer and system builder.

Yes, as announced in May 2010.

> Then came January 2012. [...] Do you have a date (roughly) when the Trevor and Ben Hermans
> cooperation finally broke down? Like, was it within the first 10 days of January 2012?

2012 is not even the right year. It wasn't 2011 either, btw.

@thread

Interesting development:

click link for the trademark case

After forcing C-A Acquistion Corporation to file a separate lawsuit, this seems rather odd.

In addition I've seen a rather vague label concerning a "judicial incident" that appears to be new.

Details when available.

#6

Unfortunately "judicial incident" could either apply to a matter being referred to a court, or a court having judged against someone. We can't know because it isn't legal terminology.

It wouldn't be a stretch to guess Ben hasn't complied with the bank to hand over financial figures, despite the recapitalisation.

I've no idea what happens if someone is late to file in Belgium. Probably just a fine, and another deadline.

@thread

Hyperion's late filing for 2018 accounts

year by year summary

Still nothing from the court re:
Quote:

#6

Quote:

Could it be that Hyperion will actually cease to exist as a legal entity in Belgium? Makes me wonder how close Ben Hermans is to giving up on Hyperion Entertainment as a business? I don't imagine that he has made enough money from AmigaOS4 sales to even cover all the legal costs from the initial legal battle with Amiga Inc. AND this current legal struggle with Cloanto and the "Amiga Parties".

Let's give him some encouragement; "Give it up Ben", no one likes you or believes what you say anymore. Obviously no work is being done to develop AmigaOS4 at this point in time (and probably not for the past several months, since Sollie was fired). Just let it go and allow Cloanto and the community to carry what is left of the Amiga forward.

Quote:

It is ridiculously long overdue for HYPE to close up shop. It seems to me the OS3.14 release (or whatever it is called A_W) gave a temporary shot in the arm for legal costs. I'd imagine that is just about dried up.

What I wonder is what scorched earth tactic will he do on his way out? He won't just leave, he'll probably try to take down all of his former associates and business partners. Will he sue A-Eonkit, the Wonder Twins and others?

[ Edited by redrumloa 08.08.2019 - 12:01 ]

Ben's had better times to leave and he hasn't taken them. I doubt he will now. OS4 is dead, but he can still make money from 3.1.4.

Once it was common belief that he, personally, was in debt with Hyperion, and was holding on because he wanted them repaid. But we now know that he was simply charging his legal bills to Hyperion, and has apparently swapped them for near-complete ownership of the company. Possibly shafting everyone else who had stakes or shares in Hyperion.

There's plenty we still don't know about how this all works, but I think he'll leave when he's made a lot of money and can't make any more, even if that means he has to completely destroy everything and everyone else in the process.

Quote:

I'd guess anyone who would actually pay for 3.1.4 has already bought it. There is a percentage of the Kommunity that will buy anything with an "Amiga" label the moment it comes out. After that? Probably close to nill. The rest of the Kommunity would just pirate it if they wanted to try it out. It seems to offer very little compared to OS3.9 from an end user perspective.

Also, despite what some others think here, I think 3.1.4 will be deemed a pirate release by the courts.

Quote:

Cloanto manage to keep a business going selling 3.1 and various other stuff, mainly to retro fans and collectors. Ben's obviously gunning to take over that market from them - hence the lawsuit. (And hence Jens' sudden involvement - he needs Picasso96!)

3.9 has a problem in that it doesn't run on 68000, and this makes it a poor choice for things like super-68000 boards and FPGA boards that may not emulate 020 well or at all. Oh, and in that it's difficult to buy except second hand - H&P don't seem to sell it any more.

[ Edited by KennyR 08.08.2019 - 19:29 ]

> Ben's obviously gunning to take over that market from them - [...] hence Jens' sudden involvement

I don't think this causality is for real. Cloanto is merely a P96 licensee and never claimed more in this regard.

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2016-05-00057-DE.html
http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2017-04-00021-EN.html
http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2018-12-00051-EN.html
http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2019-02-00027-EN.html
http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2019-03-00019-EN.html

> Trevor denies A-Eonkit own ExecSG. He does not deny that he personally owns it,
> as in Trevor the individual.

Interesting comment:

"I'll also be staying with Steven and his family during my short stay in Calgary. It will be a good chance to discuss future development plans for ExecSG."
http://blog.a-eon.biz/blog/?p=11757

And on another note from the same source:

"I've even managed to squeeze in a meeting in London with Timothy de Groote and Michael Battilana of Cloanto & C-A Acquisition Corporation as we tried to find a mutually agreeable compromise to the current legal impasse. Although not successful on this occasion, it was still quite an enjoyable day"

Quote:

"It seems to offer very little compared to OS3.9 from an end user perspective. "

That is not true at all. It offers the ability to install the OS to 68000 thru 68060 with large disks, large filenames and every fix rolled up without having to manually run a dozen fixes and boing bags and the rest of the crap it used to take to install the OS. You can continue to hate on whomever you like but don't talk crap about the product as it DOES provide considerable value especially to folks just getting into Amigas for the first time. FAR better experience installing 3.1.4 and having it work rather than dicking around with all of the "tweaks" required before.

And your other erroneous statement about folks pirating it is ridiculous as well as you have to have the ROM installed to use it... So clearly you have never used it and have no idea what you are talking about.


<smh>

[ Edited by outlawal2 09.08.2019 - 13:07 ]

Quote:

I mean Jens needs Picasso96, not Ben.

On 3.1.4 you can simply keep using whatever driver your card came with. Jens has the problem that he actually releases hardware with its own graphics, and seems to have taken umbrage at Cloanto. Hence a (very) tenuous InCo-Hype... well, I wouldn't even call it an alliance. More like mutual sympathy.