Hyperion posts official statement about AmigaOS 3.1 source code leak

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Following the news about the Amiga source code leak, Hyperion, the company that has exclusive and worldwide rights to distribute and use Amiga OS published an official statement as follows:

Press release: Brussels, January 5, 2016 – Hyperion Entertainment wishes a happy New Year 2016 everybody!

The days between last Christmas and New Year were actually clouded by the sad fact that the source code of AmigaOS 3.1 and additional content dating back to 1994 was published and widely spread without permission of the rights-holder. Note that no code of AmigaOS 4.x was released or distributed.

Hyperion Entertainment holds an exclusive, world-wide, perpetual source-code license to the intellectual property of AmigaOS 3.1 and additional content as documented in the publicly available settlement agreement between Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc. which has taken the form of a stipulated judgement.

Based on this license AmigaOS 4.x development was started in 2001 by Hyperion Entertainment using the AmigaOS 3.1 code as a basis and as the direct successor of what Commodore left behind in 1994. AmigaOS 4.x is an actively developed product on sale and still incorporates a substantial amount of AmigaOS 3.1 code.

While this would be already more than enough of a reason to care about the unauthorised disclosure and distribution, it is also the very same settlement agreement which made all of this possible in the first place, which contractually requires Hyperion to enforce and protect any intellectual property rights associated with AmigaOS including the AmigaOS 3.1 source-code.

This entails that Hyperion Entertainment will examine all possible legal action against any unauthorised source of or use of this material it is aware of. All of this leads up to the reason why we “make such a fuss” about code which is more than 20 years old by now. While the original leak seems to stem from someone outside of the active community, it is even more sad to see quite some of the remaining active users happily participate in distributing this unauthorised copy, compromising years of development work and all possible future versions of AmigaOS and therefore biting the hand that feeds them against all common sense and in blatant violation of copyright.

Having said that, our most special thanks go to all loyal customers, user groups, dealers, partners and all others who showed and continue to show their support to us. You are the reason why AmigaOS still exists, why it remains under active development and why we care.

Thank you,
on behalf of Hyperion Entertainment, all associated developers, translators and testers.

Hyperion Entertainment CVBA
Tervurenlaan 34
1040 Brussels
Belgium (snx)

Author: Paulo Garcia

5 thoughts on “Hyperion posts official statement about AmigaOS 3.1 source code leak

  1. I find it amazing that AmigaOS 4.x has a substantial amount of AmigaOS 3.1 code in it. Would it not have been easier to build a completely new OS vs using 20 year old code? I’m no programmer, but I see other OS’s developing much faster then AmigaOS. Especially in the free realm of Linux. Development from around the world would ignite and spread to the point where applications would be available for the amiga computers compared to the situation AmigaOS is in now. For example, I am part of a small indie video game company, where we are looking to port our game to multiple platforms. Linux/SteamOS, Windows, OSX are our targets. If AmigaOS 5.0 were to be based off a Linux OS rather then 1994 AmigaOS3.1 code, porting a game to run on AmigaOS would be so much easier. We are using Unreal Engine 4.x and the compiler worked wonders on Linux. Maybe now is the time to just give up on the proprietary OS market, and let the Amiga OS be a branded on a Linux OS. There is only so much you can do with AmigaOS 3.1 code I assume… compared to the Linux kernel that is being developed on daily basis by the world community. Not to say that Hyperion hasn’t done a good job, its just that other ‘free’ Operating systems have come much farther while the Amiga OS falls in last place in comparison. Anyone that violates the copyright should be held accountable, but that being said.. hard to do. While I can’t see anyone trying to develop on AmigaOS 3.1 code, I think the time has come where proprietary Operating systems should become a thing of the past. Just look what its brought microsoft.. a broken system that people have just ‘gotten used to’ .. with all the bugs and glitches included.
    My 2 cents.

  2. Working full time as a software developer, I totally understand the frustration of the AmigaOS developers. Most people working as software developers have to pay their bills and I am impressed with the AmigaOS developers who have done this for such a long time, probably making very little money, working more or less for free. Stealing source code from a multi million corporate is one thing. Stealing from enthusiasts trying to do a good cause for the small Amiga community is a completely different thing.

  3. Frankly the code isn’t super-useful except for history, but the main danger at this stage is casting a legal shadow over AROS, a popular (relatively, in the tiny world of remaining Amiga community) AmigaOS-3.1-API-compatible clone open source operating system.

    So like the more famouse WINE project when the Microsoft Windows source code leaked, AROS devs do now have to be very very careful that there is never any “contamination” from the closed-source original AmigaOS.

    Sure, the AROS devs AFAIK have a fairly good relationship with Hyperion and open source code has IIRC (entirely legally) flowed the other way, from AROS into AmigaOS 4.x. But it’s still an issue that needs close ongoing attention to preserve the fundamental freedom of AROS.

  4. I can see both sides of the argument.

    Personally I wouldn’t worry too much about leaked source code as it would take years for anyone to better what has been achieved with OS 4.1

    if 4.1 had been leaked and ported then I would panic

    I have had amigas since 1985 and would always want one to remain in the family.

    However, I would also love to see OS 4.1 other than on youtube or via winuae.

    Unfortunately, the price of dedicated hardware cannot be justified in my case and would love to see it ported (by yourselves) to run on pc hardware to take advantage of cheaper processors, ram and graphics or even have an FPGA pci express card with custom chips etc “emulated in the fpga”

    Now that would be exciting and must be achievable if mist and arcade replay boards are able to run amiga natively albeit at aga A1200 speeds at present

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