Hyperion survives being declared bankrupt

[ptyerman]

Apparently they was declared bankrupt on the 27th of January. Doesn't bode well for Amiga OS4 users.
More info here: http://www.osnews.com/comments/28311

UPDATE:
Hyperion have posted on AmigaWorld.net and claim it's a administrative mix-up by a third party and not true.
Link here: http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/...order=0#751549

[Hewitson]

Unfortunate, but hardly surprising.

[ptyerman]

Could be that OS4.1FE is really the final edition of OS4. Makes you wonder if there was some meaning to that name.

[Nekoniaow]

I went to the linked web site to retrieve the existing official filings pertaining to the bankruptcy and this seems fairly official. There is already a date set for debtors to file claims: march 4, 2015. (Cf below for the text google-translated from Dutch.)

It seems quite a stretch that bankruptcy could be filed mistakenly, especially by a third party. To make any sense, the said third party would have to be their accounting firm and I have a hard time thinking these would casually start this kind of procedure without double checking.

Even if this was indeed an error, this would *likely* mean that the third party had already discussed the possibility of filing the documents with Hyperion and that this was definitely something they were thinking about.

In all cases, this does not bode very well.
I'll continue following the case, with a bit of luck I'll be able to buy the IP rights for AmigaOS on the cheap.

The existing filing from the link in the OSnews article (http://www.faillissementsdossier.be/...nt-cvba.aspx):

Pronunciation bankruptcy on January 27, 2015.

Dutch Commercial Court of Brussels Opening of the faillissmeent, subpoena, from: Hyperion Entertainment [...].
Trading: computer programs.
Company number: 0466.380.552
Curator: Mr. Dehandschutter Bert Ninoofse Stone Weigh 643, 1070 Brussels 7.

Date of filing claims: to within the period of thirty days from the date of delivery of the judgment at the Registry of the English Commercial Court of Brussels , Boulevard de Waterloo 70, 1000 Brussels.

Date for the filing of the first official report of verification of claims: March 4, 2015.

The persons who personally certainly have made for the bankrupt (like for the people who have made a deposit) this can deposit a statement at the Registry (Art. 72bis and 72ter Fail.W.).

Certified excerpt: The afg. Registrar, D. Snoek.

[turrican3]

If they really go to bankruptcy, i hope aeon will buy them.
The worst should be that amiga inc. buy them. This is scary !

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by turrican3

If they really go to bankruptcy, i hope aeon will buy them.
The worst should be that amiga inc. buy them. This is scary !

I don't think Amiga Inc even exist anymore so not much chance of that.

Personally I don't think it's really that big a deal if Hyperion do go bankrupt.

[Adrian Browne]

Could they just be declaring themselves bankrupt to dissolve debts?

[turrican3]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

I don't think Amiga Inc even exist anymore so not much chance of that.

Personally I don't think it's really that big a deal if Hyperion do go bankrupt.

I think amiga inc still exist, they bought amiga old games pack, but who cares about amiga inc. !?

[ptyerman]

I think the court settlement between Amiga Inc and Hyperion stated that all rights to the Amiga OS returned to Amiga Inc if Hyperion was ever to fold. All this disses AEON's product line if OS4 goes belly up, and also Acube's. Acube is one of the listed creditors in the bankruptcy filing. Time to sit back with some pop-corn and watch the fireworks again.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by ptyerman

I think the court settlement between Amiga Inc and Hyperion stated that all rights to the Amiga OS returned to Amiga Inc if Hyperion was ever to fold.

What about the diff between 3.1 and 4.1? Do the individual developers kept the rights or does it belong to Hyperion's IPs?

[lesta_smsc]

If they go bankrupt, is Copyright lost?

[BarryB]

Glad I never bought into OS 4.1 now if it's true!

[ptyerman]

Originally Posted by Doc

What about the diff between 3.1 and 4.1? Do the individual developers kept the rights or does it belong to Hyperion's IPs?

I should imagine the OS as a whole is part and parcel of it. I don't know IP law, so can't say for sure, will have to google up the last court results and try and decipher them.
As for copyright, that is a completely different thing and will still apply, as will any patents unless declared invalid by a court.

[lesta_smsc]

Originally Posted by ptyerman

I should imagine the OS as a whole is part and parcel of it. I don't know IP law, so can't say for sure, will have to google up the last court results and try and decipher them.
As for copyright, that is a completely different thing and will still apply, as will any patents unless declared invalid by a court.

But if copyright is still valid and the company no longer in existence, who will be suing?

[Ian]

Could this explain why OS4.1 FE was sold fairly cheaply?

Trying to get some cash flowing into the company

[Nekoniaow]

Originally Posted by ptyerman

I think the court settlement between Amiga Inc and Hyperion stated that all rights to the Amiga OS returned to Amiga Inc if Hyperion was ever to fold. All this disses AEON's product line if OS4 goes belly up, and also Acube's. Acube is one of the listed creditors in the bankruptcy filing. Time to sit back with some pop-corn and watch the fireworks again.

Where did you get the list of creditors? The filing at the http://faillissement.be site does not list creditors.

Oh, I see, this must be listed at the Brussels court. Do you still have the link?

[Nekoniaow]

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

But if copyright is still valid and the company no longer in existence, who will be suing?

When a company in bankruptcy gets liquidated, its assets are sold to whoever wants them with debtors obviously having priority access to them. So whichever IP or copyright was owned by the company will then belong to the buyers of these assets.

Note that bankruptcy does not necessarily result in liquidation. It's a legal procedure which helps a company to postpone and re-negociate part (or all) of its debts, Hyperion might very well be in working order again at the end of the bankruptcy proceedings.

As usual Wikipedia is a fluffy kitten:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy

And for the Netherlands in particular:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy#The_Netherlands

[lesta_smsc]

OK... was just curious to know the fate of Workbench lol. Fortunately I got hold of a few original disks when I bought my Amiga! As well as the original Workbench 2.0 for A600HD

[ptyerman]

Originally Posted by Nekoniaow

Where did you get the list of creditors? The filing at the http://faillissement.be site does not list creditors.

Oh, I see, this must be listed at the Brussels court. Do you still have the link?

I haven't looked at the court documents so can't say if there is a list of creditors there although they will be listed somewhere. Acube was mentioned in a snippet i read somewhere, can't remember where offhand, the news is all over the place. I will have a look round again and see if I can find it. It is reasonable though, Hyperion had to get their hardware from somewhere. You should find the court notice with a google search.

[ptyerman]

Just noticed this while browsing around.

A statement from Ben Hermanns (via AmigaWorld):

In Belgium anybody can file a bankruptcy claim even for 150 EUR or so. It
is a common pressure tactic used by parties who do not wish go to the usual
court process because most companies will pay rather than go through the
motions of fighting off a bankruptcy claim.

It is an abuse of procedure but in our case, matters came this far because
the company which handles our administrative seat did not hand over the
writ of summons in time for us to know about the claim.

We could easily have fended it off but now we need to overturn the judgment.

This was of course not the intention of the claimant (quite the contrary)
but there you have it.

There is still no information about who filed the claim and apart from a few select statements like this one which could indeed just be smoke and mirrors, everything seems to be steeped in secrecy at the moment.