The following history of the AmigaOS 4 dispute documents the legal battle mainly between the companies
Amiga, Inc. and
Hyperion Entertainment
Hyperion Entertainment CVBA (formerly Hyperion Entertainment VOF) is a Belgian software company which in its early years focused in porting Windows games to Amiga OS, Linux, and Mac OS. In 2001, they accepted a contract by Amiga Incorporated t ...
over the
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4 (abbreviated as OS4 or AOS4) is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code developed by Commodore, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner. "T ...
. On 30 September 2009, Hyperion and Amiga, Inc. reached a settlement agreement where Hyperion was granted an exclusive, perpetual and worldwide right to distribute and use 'The Software', a term used during the dispute and subsequent settlement to refer to source code from AmigaOS 3 and earlier, and ownership of AmigaOS 4.x and beyond.
Background
Amiga, Inc.
After
Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore ...
filed for bankruptcy in 1994, its name and IP rights, including
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
, were sold to
Escom. Escom kept the Amiga products and sold the Commodore name on to
Tulip Computers
Tulip Computers NV was a Dutch computer manufacturer that manufactured PC clones.
History
It was founded in 1979 as ''Compudata'', as an importer of American microcomputers. Compudata was the distributor for Europe for the Exidy Sorcerer, a ...
. Escom went bankrupt in 1997 and sold the Amiga IP to Gateway 2000 (now only Gateway). On 27 December 1999, Gateway sold the Amiga name and rights to Amino Development, who changed the company name to Amiga, Inc. once the assets had been acquired. The 'Amino' Amiga, Inc. and the 'KMOS' Amiga, Inc. are seen by Hyperion as legally distinct entities, contracts to one are of no relevance to the other.
Hyperion's OS4 project
Hyperion Entertainment
Hyperion Entertainment CVBA (formerly Hyperion Entertainment VOF) is a Belgian software company which in its early years focused in porting Windows games to Amiga OS, Linux, and Mac OS. In 2001, they accepted a contract by Amiga Incorporated t ...
released
AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4 (abbreviated as OS4 or AOS4) is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code developed by Commodore, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner. "T ...
(OS4) to the public in 2004. The five year development process led to accusations of
vapourware and producing a modern
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...
OS, given that Hyperion claimed that they had the original AmigaOS 3.1 source code to reference (a claim later proven accurate). This was made worse by the apparent much more rapid progress and maturity of competitor and alternative AmigaOS clone
MorphOS
MorphOS is an AmigaOS-like computer operating system (OS). It is a mixed Proprietary software, proprietary and Open-source software, open source OS produced for the Pegasos PowerPC (PPC) processor based computer, PowerUP accelerator equipped Amig ...
, which had been begun several years earlier. Perhaps the most important feature of OS4 as regards the legal dispute is the presence of an entirely new PowerPC native
kernel
Kernel may refer to:
Computing
* Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems
* Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution
* Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming
* Kernel method, in machine learnin ...
. ExecSG replaces the original Amiga Exec and is claimed entirely the work and property of Hyperion's subcontracted developers Thomas and Hans-Joerg Frieden. Neither
Amiga, Inc. nor Hyperion actually own ExecSG, so technically cannot demand or hand it over, leaving the OS with fragmented and confused ownership.
The supposed rebirth of Amiga
![AmigaOne X1000 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/AmigaOne_X1000_02.jpg)
In 2007 ''
The Inquirer
''The Inquirer'' (stylized as TheINQUIRER) was a British technology tabloid website founded by Mike Magee after his departure from ''The Register'' (of which he was one of the founding members) in 2001. In 2006 the site was acquired by Dutch ...
'' reported that the
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
was inching closer to rebirth with the long-awaited release of
AmigaOS 4.0
AmigaOS 4 (abbreviated as OS4 or AOS4) is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code developed by Commodore, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partn ...
, a new
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...
-native version of the classic
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is a family of proprietary native operating systems of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. It was developed first by Commodore International and introduced with the launch of the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Early version ...
(
Motorola 68k
The Motorola 68000 series (also known as 680x0, m68000, m68k, or 68k) is a family of 32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessors. During the 1980s and early 1990s, they were popular in personal computers and workstations and w ...
) from the 1980s. This new PowerPC OS would run on the
AmigaOne
AmigaOne is a series of computers intended to run AmigaOS 4 developed by Hyperion Entertainment, as a successor to the Amiga series by Commodore International. Earlier models were produced by Eyetech, and were based on the ''Teron'' series of Powe ...
machines, now out of production, which could only run
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
while waiting for the new PowerPC OS to be released. The year after,
Amiga, Inc. also announced a new AmigaOS 4 compatible system that would be available shortly. The new machine was neither Genesi's Efika, nor the project codenamed ''Samantha'', (now known as the
Sam440ep Sam440, also known by Sam or its codename Samantha, is a line of modular motherboards produced by the Italian company ACube Systems Srl. The Sam440ep version is a motherboard based on the PowerPC 440EP system-on-a-chip processor which includes a d ...
from
ACube Systems
ACube Systems Srl is a company that started in January 2007 from the synergy of the Italian companies Alternative Holding Group Srl, Soft3 and Virtual Works.
The three companies have been engaged in the areas of sale, distribution and engineering ...
). The new hardware was from a new entrant, the Canadian company ACK Software Controls, and would have consisted of a budget and advanced model.
The dispute
Four days after
Amiga, Inc. announced the new
Amiga OS4 (OS4) compatible machines, they sued
Hyperion Entertainment
Hyperion Entertainment CVBA (formerly Hyperion Entertainment VOF) is a Belgian software company which in its early years focused in porting Windows games to Amiga OS, Linux, and Mac OS. In 2001, they accepted a contract by Amiga Incorporated t ...
(Hyperion). Amiga, Inc. stated that it decided to produce a
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...
version of
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is a family of proprietary native operating systems of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. It was developed first by Commodore International and introduced with the launch of the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Early version ...
in 2001 and on November 3, 2001, they signed a contract with Hyperion (then a game developer for the 68k Amiga platform as well as Linux and Macintosh). Amiga, Inc. gave Hyperion access to the sources of the last
Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore ...
version, AmigaOS 3.1, but access to the post-Commodore versions OS 3.5 and 3.9 had to be purchased from the third party responsible for their development, since Haage & Partner (developers of OS 3.5 and 3.9) never returned their AmigaOS source code to Amiga, Inc.
Amiga, Inc. also said that its contract allowed Hyperion to use Amiga trademarks in the promotion of OS4 on Eyetech's
AmigaOne
AmigaOne is a series of computers intended to run AmigaOS 4 developed by Hyperion Entertainment, as a successor to the Amiga series by Commodore International. Earlier models were produced by Eyetech, and were based on the ''Teron'' series of Powe ...
and stipulated that Hyperion should make its best efforts to deliver OS 4 by March 1, 2002, a port of an elderly operating system (68k) for an entirely different processor architecture (PowerPC) in four months, an optimistic target that Hyperion failed to meet.
According to Amiga, Inc., the contract permits the purchase of the full sources of OS4 from Hyperion for US$25,000. The court filing says that Amiga, Inc. paid this sometime in April–May 2003, to keep Hyperion from going bankrupt, and that between then and November 21, 2006, Amiga, Inc. paid another $7,200, then $8,850 more which it says Hyperion said was owing.
Furthermore, in the filing, Amiga, Inc. President Bill McEwen revealed that Amiga, Inc. still hasn't received the sources for AmigaOS 4, that he's discovered that much of its development was outsourced to third-party contract developers and that it is not clear if Hyperion has all the rights to this external work. Eventually, after five years and $41,050, on 21 November 2006, Amiga, Inc. told Hyperion it had violated the contract and gave it 30 days to sort it out—to finish the product and hand over the sources. That did not happen, so the contract was terminated. on 20 December 2006.
Hyperion claims in its defense that Amiga, Inc. rendered the contract null through dealings with KMOS, a company which acquired the Amiga assets and renamed itself Amiga, Inc. over 2004–05.
Four days later, on 24 December 2006, Hyperion released the final version of OS4 – although according to Amiga, Inc., Hyperion claims that this was merely an update of the developers' preview version of 16 April 2004. Since the contract ended, Hyperion had no rights to use the name ''AmigaOS'' or any Amiga
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
, or to market OS4 or enter into any agreements about it with anyone else. Nevertheless, AmigaOS 4 was still being developed and distributed. Furthermore,
ACube Systems
ACube Systems Srl is a company that started in January 2007 from the synergy of the Italian companies Alternative Holding Group Srl, Soft3 and Virtual Works.
The three companies have been engaged in the areas of sale, distribution and engineering ...
released a series of
Sam440ep Sam440, also known by Sam or its codename Samantha, is a line of modular motherboards produced by the Italian company ACube Systems Srl. The Sam440ep version is a motherboard based on the PowerPC 440EP system-on-a-chip processor which includes a d ...
motherboards, which run AmigaOS 4.
For a time, the case seemed deadlocked with neither side being apparently able to prove the point either way. Without Amiga, Inc.'s permission, Hyperion Entertainment could not use the AmigaOS name or related trademarks. Hyperion's defense centered around the potentially contract-voiding nature of the Amiga, Inc./KMOS handover, the problems they faced in acquiring the post-
Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore ...
OS 3.x source code which Amiga, Inc. claimed to own and have access to, and the presence of new work and open components in the new operating system.
Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc. reached settlement agreement
On 30 September 2009, Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc. reached settlement agreement where Hyperion was granted, "an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide right to AmigaOS 3.1 in order to use, develop, modify, commercialize, distribute and market AmigaOS 4.x.
References
External links
Amiga, Inc.Hyperion EntertainmentACube Systems
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The Amigaos 4 Dispute
*AmigaOS 4