amiga-news.de - Rainer Benda takes off OS-software from net

01.Nov.2000
Rainer Benda on ANF Rainer Benda takes off OS-software from net
Rainer Benda has taken off all Kickstart- and Workbench-disks from his website by order of Amiga Inc. Until its bankruptcy in spring of 1994 Commodore(C=) Germany offered in the support-area of their own mailbox "Combo" some Amiga-software for download. The Amiga-Workbench-disks, -Kickstart-files as well as ROM`s and utility-disks among other files. These files were only meant for support and were only allowed to be downloaded to supply some newer versions of C=`s software or if a disk was faulty. Rainer Benda, former employee of Commodore Germany, was SysOp of this mailbox.

In 1994 Commodore bankrupted and Rainer Benda first took over these files as far as they were existing on his own mailbox "Black-Zone" and later on his own website, and offered those under the conditions of the Combo for free support. In this way Amiga-user could use this offer over a long time without any problems. He solved legal doubts with the liquidator of Commodore Hembach, and later with Petro Tyschtschenko (Amiga International, Amiga Germany).

During the last years Commodore was auctioned to Escom, Escom bankrupted and after a while the rights of Commodore were given to Gateway. During this time there were no doubts on the legal status of the files neither by the owner nor by the liquidator Hembach.

At the end of 1999 the firm Amino (today Amiga Inc.) founded by Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss bought the Amiga-rights from Gateway. In April 2000 first Benda got the request by Cloanto to remove the OS-files from the website. Together with Amiga Forever Cloanto sells an Amiga-emulation-packet based on UAE which contains the OS-files with a paid licence. (The reason for this request is explained by Cloanto generally at Distribution of Amiga ROM and OS Files. Because there was not a statement of the new owner to the legal status of the files until this time, Benda did not comply with the request.

Some days later Benda got the urgent request by Gary Peake, Amiga Inc., to remove all software from his website which is under copyright of Amiga. After some discussions between Benda and Amiga, Benda removed the AmigaOS V3.1 Kickstart- and Workbench-disks from the net to protect the interests of Cloanto. Since then there were no other reactions. From the point of view of Benda you can read up this course of events in the part 3.1 of his essay "Meine Story zum Untergang von C=" (German).

To this time the AmigaPlus CD No. 3/2000 was released that contains the Kickstart- and Workbench-files up to Amiga V2.0 and nearly all other support-files with permission of Petro Tyschtschenko without paying any licence. Only the Kickstart- and Workbench-files of AmigaOS 2.1 up to 3.1 are not on this CDRom. These commercial sales were possible without paying something for the licence without any problems. Furthermore Kickstart 1.3/3.0 and Workbench 3.0 appeared on the CD of the PC-magazine UAE No. 3/2000. At the end of October 2000 Benda got a letter of the department of law of the German Telekom with the request of removing all files from the websites http://home.t-online.de/r.benda/soft2.html, and http://home.t-online.de/home/r.benda/soft3.html. This request was caused by Gary Peake.

These sites contained the remained Amiga-Workbench-disks, Amiga-Kickstarts as well as BETA-/development-software. Benda complied with this request that means there is no longer any AmigaOS-software for exchanging faulty disks for download on his website. Amiga itself offers a corresponding help. If you have got faulty Workbench-disks or something like that you can contact Amiga for help.

[News message: 01. Nov. 2000, 05:37] [Comments: 0]
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