Diverse Neuigkeiten

Besitzt Lotus Pacific, Inc. AMIGA-Rechte in Fernost?

Achtung: Es ist keineswegs sicher, daß die folgenden beiden Presseerklärungen rechtswirksam sind. Ich bitte, dazu das Vorwort zu Beginn dieser AMIGA-aktuell-Ausgabe sowie die weiter unten folgende Erklärung von Gateway 2000 zu lesen.

«July 17, 1997
PISCATAWAY, NJ - Lotus Pacific, Inc., a public company listed on NASDAQ Bulletin Board, announced today that its direct subsidiary Regent Electronics Corp., entered into a Purchase Agreement with Rightiming Electronics Corp., a New Jersey based high-tech company, to acquire certain technology related assets and rights for an aggregate consideration of US $5,000,000 (five million US dollars) and 8,000,000 (eight million) shares of Common Stock of Regent Electronics Corp.

The acquired assets include all Commodore-Amiga's patents, licenses, trademarks, and copyrights to be registered and used in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and the bordering countries between China and the former Soviet Union. Over the past year Rightiming successfully developed a multi-media and multi-functional TV set top box. It was brand named as Wonder TV A-6000. This product features an all-in-one box system with combined functions of a multi-media personal computer, a fax machine, a Karaoke machine an Internet box, an audio CD player, a video CD player and an electronic game machine. Patents for this multi-media and multi-functional TV set top box are being registered in China.

The acquisition decision, by the management of Lotus Pacific, Inc. is to produce and market a home use electronics product similar to Web-TV in China and other countries in Asia Pacific. The market potential for this new home electronics product is believed to be tremendous in the Far East.

Lotus Pacific, Inc. is a public company traded on the NASDAQ bulletin board under the symbol of LPFC. Its Internet website is at http://www.lpfc.com/

Contact:

Lotus Pacific Inc., Pascataway
David Fei, 732/885-0600»

Nun folgt die Ankündigung einer strategischen Allianz zur Produktion eines Multifunktions-Multimedia- und -Kommunikations-Geräts (sorry, aber eine bessere Bezeichnung fiel mir nicht ein) auf Basis der AMIGA-Technologie:

«July 18, 1997
PISCATAWAY, NJ - Lotus Pacific, Inc., a public company listed on NASDAQ Bulletin Board, announced today its strategic alliance, through its direct subsidiary Regent Electronics Corporation, with the largest TV manufacturer in China, Sichuan Changhong Electronics Group Corporation of China.

According to the signed co-operation agreement, Sichuan Changhong will produce over 200,000 units of Wonder TV A6000 in China before the end of 1998. Regent has complete product technical license and patent and it will supply product specific chip set and other key components to Sichuan Changhong. Wonder TV A6000 is now highly valued by industry experts as a true TV ready wonder box which combines all the useful functions of a multi-media computer, a fax machine, a karaoke, an Internet box (like WebTV) and a game machine.

Sichuan Changhong Electronics Group Corporation, a public company listed in the Central Chinese Stock Exchange, is now No.1 in China and the 8th largest TV manufacturer in the world. In 1996 it produced and sold over 5 million television sets.

Lotus Pacific, Inc. is a public company traded on the NASDAQ bulletin board under the symbol of LPFC. Its Internet website is at http://www.lpfc.com/»

Gateway 2000: Lotus Pacific, Inc. hat keinerlei Rechte am AMIGA

Der Mutterkonzern von AMIGA International wies die Ansprüche von Lotus bzw. NewStar am 24. Juli scharf zurück:

«24.07.1997
Klarstellung über einen Rightiming Electronics / Lotus Pacific-Bericht, der Verwirrung in der AMIGA-Gemeinde verursacht hat

Als Besitzer aller weltweiten Amiga, Inc. Patentrechte wollen wir, Gateway 2000, einen kürzlich erschienen Bericht über den angeblichen Verkauf aller Amiga Patente, Markennamen und Copyrights von Rightiming Electronics an Lotus Pacific, Inc. zur Nutzung in China, Taiwan, Macao und den angrenzenden Ländern zwischen China und der ehemaligen Sowjetunion richtigstellen.

Rightiming behauptet, eine Lizenz zur Herstellung von Amigas zu besitzen und hat anscheinend versucht, diese vermeintliche Lizenz an Lotus Pacific zu verkaufen. Wir bestreiten deren Lizenzrecht, deren Recht, irgendeine Lizenz zu verkaufen, und wir bestreiten jeden Anspruch, den sie in Bezug auf Amiga Patente, Copyrights oder Markennamen gemacht haben. Gateway 2000 besitzt weltweit alle Amiga Patente, Copyrights und Markennamen und wird weiterhin Amiga Technologie an qualifizierte Unternehmen lizensieren.

Dr. Jim Taylor, Gateway 2000»

Intrinsic Computer Systems möchte AMIGA-Clones lizensieren lassen

Achtung: Die in der folgenden ICS-Presseerklärung angesprochene Lizenz hat keinerlei Rechtsgültigkeit, da entgegen anderslautenden Aussagen noch kein Abkommen mit AMIGA International zustandegekommen ist. Ich veröffentliche sie an dieser Stelle trotzdem, damit sich schon jetzt jeder über die Pläne von Intrinsic Computer Systems informieren kann:

«OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Amiga International Inc. License Intrinsic Computer Systems to Manufacture A1200 based Computers - 9th July 1997

In a not surprising announcement ICS have been awarded a license to produce A1200 based tower systems. Micronik and Index Information Ltd have already been granted licenses and it was only a matter of time that the leaders in multimedia technology for the Amiga would follow suit. The new A1200 tower system will be called the Amigo PC range.

"We know that the Amiga is the best machine available for the home and professional user. Its operating system is far superior to that of Wintel and Mac based machines and that's the reason why we don't develop for any other platform. Amiga OS is far more efficient in the areas of memory, resources and hard disk storage than any other operating system.The future of the Amiga has now become very exciting and we were very pleased when we heard the announcement that Micronik, Index Information Ltd and then ourselves had been awarded licenses to produce Amiga based systems"- Barry Turner of Intrinsic Computer Systems.

In Amigo PC will be supplied in various configurations:

• Storm A1200 based tower system
• Cyclone A1200 based tower system, 68030 50Mhz CPU with 16 or 32Mb
• Tornado A1200 based tower system, 68060 50Mhz CPU with 16 or 32Mb
• Hurricane A1200 based tower system, PPC603e 200Mhz with 16 or 32Mb

They will all have the option of Hard Drive and CD Rom Drive.

An example of a "Fully Loaded" system would be:

Hurricane with 2Gb Hard Drive, 16x CD Rom Drive, PPC603e 200Mhz, 34Mb ram, expansion bus, graphics card and monitor. £1699.95

"Although the license is only an interim one that does not allow ICS to use the Amiga name on its products for the next 12 months, the best personal computer there is has just got better"

For further information contact ICS:

Tel: +44 (0)1474 335294
Fax: +44 (0)1474 533500

or write to:

Intrinsic Computer Systems, 38 Kings Drive, Gravesend, Kent DA12 5BJ England»

Petro Tyschtschenkos Grüße zur "Australian AMIGA Gathering '97"

«Amiga International, Inc.

Greeting of Petro Tyschtschenko to dealers and distributors in Australia and New Zealand at the Australian Amiga Gathering 97, June 28, 1997

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Welcome to the Australian Amiga Gathering 97. Unfortunately, I was not able to make a trip to Australia at the present time. That does not mean that Australia is too far away from Europe... because, please keep in mind, that no place in the world is too far away for me to see and to talk with our AMIGA enthusiastics and evangelists, with our distributors and with our dealers, which kept AMIGA alive.

You have my word, the next convention that will take place in Australia, you will see me. But please give me some notice... I have to plan and organize this trip and I would like to combine it with a visit to India and Malaysia.

I am very happy to have here such a great and active person like Basil Flinter who is representing AMIGA International, Inc. during this gathering here in Australia. I am sure you will support him and he also can answer you a lot of questions.

Many thanks to Basil for his activities. Many thanks to you, my friends, for your support and understanding. Many thanks for your standing and your patience.

I am really happy to hear that our AMIGA community is so exciting and looking with big interest into the future. I understand that some of you take a back seat for a while... But please do not rest too long... as you may know, there are a lot of things to mobilize to have a bright future and great success.

With Gateway 2000, please be sure, we will have a great future. But we have to be active as well. As I already mentioned in my London speech, the base of my strategy are three elements:

• Supporting the existing AMIGA community
• Leveraging the existing AMIGA technology through broad licensing
• Assisting in developing new products based on open standards to the home computer and video/graphics market

We need potential partners here in Australia and we are looking for such partners. As you are already aware, Gateway 2000 is a great home for our AMIGA, and with Gateway's spirit and financial resource we will have a bright future, indeed.

AMIGA International is exploring all possible products for the marketplace, including both hardware and software. We will open up the marketplace to cloning through licensing. In Europe I have just finalized a licence contract with Micronik. This company is buying A1200 motherboards from AMIGA International and are putting those in towercases, with separate keyboards and a lot of possibilities to upgrade our A1200 with a 68060 processor, MPEG I, Zorro 2/3 and other add ons.

I think it is a great challenge because, as you may guess, it is impossible to have in a short time frame new products available.

At this time we are identifying candidates to manage the R&D department and will explore the most efficient method of performing R&D. We already talked with competent people and we will announce names and performance to the public as soon as possible. We are interested in working with companies such as Phase 5 to develop one unified AMIGA standard.

Please be aware that AMIGA International, Inc. will be treated as a seperate subsidiary of Gateway 2000. It is not the policy of Gateway 2000 to mix AMIGA activities with Gateway 2000 activities. That does of course not mean that Gateway 2000 is not supporting AMIGA International. There are a lot of synergy effects and AMIGA International has all support that is needed to go in the right direction. I collected only good experiences so far.

I believe there is still a strong following AMIGA system based on publication and user groups that have kept the market alive through bankruptcy. There should be a strong future for the AMIGA through licensing and new product development.

AMIGA's intention is to support the development community through concepts such as the "Open AMIGA Initiative" and will explore other concepts to bring developers on the platform. We will explore the development of an OS upgrade and will adress the features and functions that are necessary.

Gateway 2000 will provide resources to reinvigorate the AMIGA marketplace and keep AMIGA a profitable subsidiary, you can be absolutely sure.

THE BASIC OF SUCCESS IS TO WORK TOGETHER WITH PARTNERS.

The AMIGA market can not afford a split!

WE MUST GO TOGETHER IN ONE DIRECTION.

To reactivate the Australian market, I have worked out a very aggressive price structure and you can take the possibility to talk with Basil about this.

Please support AMIGA International, Inc. as you have done this in the past. Do not give up this wonderful computer technology.

AMIGA is back for the future and you will be a part of the future...

Thank you very much for your attention.

Petro Tyschtschenko
AMIGA International, Inc.»

Programmierer versteckt Virus in eigenem Virenkiller

Seit Ende Juni sorgt eine zweifelhafte Aktion für Aufsehen in der AMIGA- Welt: Wohl zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte unseres Computersystems hat ein Programmierer sein eigenes Anti-Viren-Programm mutwillig mit einem selbst hergestellten Virus verseucht und in Umlauf gebracht.

Die Rede ist von Martin Wulffeld, dem dänischen Programmierer des bekannten Virenkillers XTruder. Aus Verzweiflung über die zunehmende illegale Nutzung seines Programms mit gefälschten Keyfiles, und persönlicher Rache gegenüber einem User, hat Wulffeld die Version 3.5 von XTruder mit einem eigens dafür programmierten Trojan versehen. Dieser wird beim Einsatz eines gefälschten Keyfiles aktiviert und verändert Dateien auf der Systempartition der Festplatte (bzw. Workbench-Diskette). Nach Bekanntwerden der Aktion hat Wulffeld angekündigt, daß XTruder ab Version 3.6 wieder "sauber" ist.

Fazit:

Jeder sollte sich selbst eine Meinung zu der Aktion von Martin Wulffeld bilden. Ich zumindest bin der Auffassung, daß eine solche Vorgehensweise sehr bedenklich ist.
Nicht nur, daß dies stark an "Wild-West-Methoden" erinnert ("Du klaust mein Programm - ich zerstöre Deine Daten"), die zumindest ich mir in unserer heutigen Gesellschaft nicht wünsche.
Nein, auch rechtlich gesehen ist dieser Schritt kaum zu verteidigen, da die Zerstörung fremden Eigentums, in diesem Fall von Software, eine strafbare Handlung darstellt. Welche Folgen hätte es z.B. gehabt, wenn durch diese Aktion wichtige Daten, von denen keine Sicherungskopie existiert, zerstört worden wären?

Es sollte sich aber auch jeder bewußt machen, daß das illegale Kopieren - dazu gehört natürlich auch die Benutzung falscher Keyfiles -, egal ob für den eigenen Gebrauch oder nicht, ob unentgeltlich oder gegen Zahlung einer Summe, in jedem Fall einen Diebstahl und somit eine Straftat darstellt. Jeder, der versucht, das Raubkopieren mit Argumenten wie z.B. "zu hohen Softwarepreisen" zu legitimieren, trägt mit dazu bei, daß die Programmierer um die Früchte ihrer Arbeit gebracht werden und die Software als Folge noch teurer gemacht werden muß, um überhaupt einen Gewinn zu erzielen. Darüber hinaus ist es kein Wunder, wenn sich immer mehr frustrierte Programmierer fragen, warum sie überhaupt noch Software entwickeln sollen, wenn es zwar viele Nutzer gibt, aber nur wenige, die wirklich dafür bezahlt haben.