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Originally Posted by JimDrew
I am a little confused on this whole licensing "issue". Perhaps things are different outside of the U.S., but here there is absolutely no licensing requirement for the Picasso96 software... period. You can manufacturer a video card that is fully compatible with the Picasso96 software without any legal repercussions. You just can not include the Picasso96 software with the video card without permission/licensing, because that software is a copyrighted work. Our laws here in the U.S. protect the consumer from monopolies. Much like it is legal to write software for your iphone via a jailbreak, or modify firmware in your automobile's ECM, you most certainly can produce hardware that supports someone else's software. It's even legal to reverse engineer a product to determine how it works here in the U.S.
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I don't see anything illegal about what Elbox did with the Mediator drivers (no legal problems so far). They lost the advantages of a developer kit and an easier install but they may not have been available or for sale by that time anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JimDrew
The only real issue I see is the lack of information about the driver structure that many of us are after. That it's it. Again, maybe the laws are different in Germany and other countries. Here in the U.S., we have no licensing issue because there is no copyrighted code being included with any video hardware.
I am hoping that Jens will "sell" developer kits. THAT is the only thing worth anything as far as the Picasso96 software is concerned.
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Updates and support are worth something. The owners just need to make the new version enough better than the old free version to be worth the probably small amount they are charging. RTG should be built into the AmigaOS which should be developed. Of course this would need to come from the guys who pulled the old free PPaint from Aminet instead of making their new version enough better to sell itself. They also nickle and dime for new GUI components that should be included in the AmigaOS. Their partner Hyperion is probably not capable of creating an "efficient" version of the AmigaOS anyway (MorphOS wins in every performance matchup I have seen). Only Amiga makes it impossible.