For the first time in its 7 years of existence, some decent statement has been released concering the legality of Zeta. Access, the current owner of Be, Inc.'s IP, states: "We have sent 'cease and desist' letters to YellowTab on a number of occasions, which have been uniformly ignored. If Herr Korz feels that he holds a legitimate license to the BeOS code he's been using, we're completely unaware of it, and I'd be fascinated to see him produce any substantiation for that claim." Update: Bernd Korz has replied on his blog.
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Member since:2005-08-18
"I could soup up my car to drive over 150Mph, but it would be illegal for me to do so."
It would only be illegal if you drove it on public roads, not if you drove it on your property.
Now we're getting into the fun domain of what EULA's can actually restrict, ie can it restrict what you personally do with your copy? etc etc.
God, lets not go there, it's late.
Member since:2005-07-27
The funny thing is, Be, Inc. left the Installer app inside BeOS R5 PE. One would think Be, Inc. would realize what you could do outside of the "limitations" BeOS R5 PE imposed, with that app.
I could smell blood in the water when R5 was released. I knew something was up... something was dying. When I saw BeOS R5 PE (FREE version of BeOS!!!), I got nothing but a bad feeling from it. I sensed this was an act of desparation. And look what happened to Be, Inc. shortly thereafter...
If you don't protest the actions of those breaking the rules, you are an accomplice to the rule breaking.
Be, Inc. never threw up any protest (to my knowledge) when people used their brains and realized how easy it was to circumvent PE's "limitation". Therefore, they (Be, Inc.) didn't mind all that much.
Probably because, by that time, they had their head up their mule, enfatuated over the whole BeIA concept...
Be, Inc. was going full speed ahead... and then they "focus shifted" into reverse. We all know what that'll do to an engine. (or the transmission). The fate of Be, Inc., afterwards, is evidence enough.
BeOS is dead.
Zeta just died.
Haiku is alive and well!!!!
It's nice to see the true successor to BeOS's legacy is the one that has an Energizer battery in it.
It just keeps going... and going... and going... :-D
Member since:2006-04-17
Member since:
2006-01-01
Dude, you can't avoid the fact that PE was not meant to be installed on a real partition. Without dragging up JLG or someone like that. I doubt we can find real proof, as the Be site is gone and that was the best I could find. But it's an official FAQ. PE was restricted to 500MB partition. Making excuses about "non average" users is almost as lame as the whole "ACCESS would have to opensource BeOS is we got the Zeta sourcecode leaked". I could soup up my car to drive over 150Mph, but it would be illegal for me to do so. Just as the license is the license, intended use is still intended use. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it's not valid.