Licensing - Slowing down or stopping classic platform development?

[Omega-TI]

Being that our TI community is small, even by Classic Computing standards, and some of these old pieces of hardware are 30+ years, they really have no viable profit potential, other than in limited runs of 50-75 at the most (I believe). So it's basically a labor of love and a gift to the community by these few talented guys that devote so much hard work and effort to bring joy into their fellow hobbyists hands by recreating or designing new toys.

 

Now on the topic of re-creations, every now and then the topic of licensing comes up, sometimes it can put the brakes on remaking a really neat gadget. So it got me wondering, has there ever been an instance where development was stopped dead, because of licensing issues?

[+Ksarul]

The P-GRAM card would be one, right off the top of my head. There are others--pretty much any of the 80-column cards can't be touched (unless Gary lets us clone the TIM). Same goes for CorComp, Foundation, Atronic, Mechatronic, and MorningStar cards in general, along with the general cards from the smaller hardware vendors.

[Omega-TI]

That's kind of sad. I don't understand what motivates withholding the stuff back after all this time, there must be some valid reason other than greed or selfishness. I mean there is not enough profit potential in these old devices quantity-wise with so few of us out here, and the community would not be asking them to invest anything at all, in either time or effort, just to let someone else copy the device to make a very a limited number, but I guess some would rather sit on something and let it rot, rather than share.

 

I'm very pleased to hear about the cool stuff in the pipeline like the Myarc 720K card remake, the PS/2 keyboard adapter and the speech adapter. I know there are a few people that would like a new 9938/9958 compatible too, but honestly, if one came out, I'd pass myself, as I'm running out of space in my PEB and I'm quite happy with my F18A's capabilities and the fact that it does not take up valuable space in the P-Box.

[+save2600]

Are you including stuff like the Tutankham (G)ROM that could/should be released, but isn't? There are similar examples going on in the Atari community. Just don't understand these mindsets at all.

 

How many years have to go by before people stop caring about any of this stuff? Why not capitalize on what you can share today, before it's too late?

[+Ksarul]

With some of these items, the blocker is finding someone with verified rights to the products. With Myarc and Rave99 items, we are lucky, in that the owner of the IP is still an active member of the community. That is not the case with some of the other items.

[matthew180]

IMO the biggest blocker is someone actually spending the time to do the work to produce a new piece of hardware or software, rather than any kind of old copyrights. Anyone can use that as an excuse, but at the end of the day writing software and making hardware is hard. Most people just want the easy way out and want someone else to do the work. Also, if you were to spend the time and effort on new hardware, you would be much better off using new technology.

[Omega-TI]

IMO the biggest blocker is someone actually spending the time to do the work to produce a new piece of hardware or software, rather than any kind of old copyrights. Anyone can use that as an excuse, but at the end of the day writing software and making hardware is hard. Most people just want the easy way out and want someone else to do the work. Also, if you were to spend the time and effort on new hardware, you would be much better off using new technology.

 

Well, I cannot judge and say what may be an excuse or not, simply because I can't fault someone for wanting to obey the law, or for taking a cautious approach to avoid possible litigation. So since I'm not in the position to actually do the stuff, or sell it, who am I to comment. Now *IF* I had the technical skills, I might be tempted (for myself only) to copy the programming off any device that caught my fancy and replicate the board, but since I have neither the skills, tools nor the time to do that, I have to rely on others.

 

I agree, there are two schools of thought on that, and I do prefer new technology myself when available, but when that cannot be had at any price, I'll take a copy of 'tried & true' any day, because in the end, I want to play, not wait 5 years for what 'might be', hell I could be dead in five years.