In the last few months, Cloanto started distributing Amiga System Software – the publisher traditionally refers to it as “Workbench” instead of “AmigaOS” – on CF cards, Floppy Disks and as a downloadable Workbench Disk Image Pack. Approached by Amiga-News, Cloanto’s Michael Battilana confirmed that the company owns the copyrights for all works created by the Commodore/Amiga companies up to 1993.
That seems like Cloanto now owns everything – but nothing could be farther from the truth, as the article details. Pieces of Amiga-related intellectual property are currently owned by three different companies, and there are also a few things with an unclear status.
Cynically, you could rephrase the headline as ‘Amiga IP ownership situation gets little less messy’.
Of all of the commercial entities relating to the Amiga, Cloanto probably has the cleanest record, so this is probably a positive development.
It’s also interesting that this applies to Commodore’s non-Amiga products as well. I don’t know if it has any practical implications or not, but it’s good to know the status.
I wonder what that means for our creepy friends Commodore USA?
They no longer exist. Barry Altman passed away in 2012.
I wonder if/when Cloanto will go after VICE… (the emulator of various Commodore’s 8-bit machines; its downloads on SourceForge include the firmwares)
dead for a long time and the technology has been eclipsed a long time ago. RIP Amiga.
…than a few months. Their Amiga Forever package has been the canonical legal way to get ROM images and OS software for use in emulators for roughly a decade.
Can I haz Commodore 64/128 SOC laptop plz? No emulation, a real C64 ASIC with built in 16MB RAM expansion and SD card drive. I’m sure you could Kickstart it.
Sure you can… I already own one… but it’s pretty heavy for your lap…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_SX-64
I have to argue that the C64 still has a bigger following than the Amiga. It’s just more fun all around. You are not familiar with these computers are you? SD card drive is already available for a real C64.
Edited 2015-02-21 12:45 UTC
A modern C64 laptop exists (The C64p)
http://awesome.commodore.me/about/kitty/commodore-c64p-review/
But I’d want something more official with the correct keyboard layout (PETSCII) and better build quality.
Ben Heckendorn built a C64 laptop that looks not just good, it looks great!
Why do you want 16 MB RAM in a “real” C64 machine? The 6510 MOS CPU cannot address more than 64 kB.
RAM Expansion Unit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_REU – Works through paging
See this for practical uses of 16MB of RAM on a C64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0TFsyR4YL8
“practical”?