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Scala Is Now Considered "Public Domain"?

Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
08 Nov 2017 15:15


According to here (a facebook post by Jon Bøhmer, who was a CEO of Scala) EXTERNAL LINK 
In a reply to Thom Mills asking: "A few questions about using Scala MM 400 now. .... Is MM400 still a copy protected software from a technical point of view? .... Is MM400 now considered to be in the public domain?"
Jon Bøhmer answered: "I really have no idea! Perhaps it was cracked? Surely nobody is going to bother with anybody making a copy of it - not then, and certainly not now... :-)"

Would that be the case for the source code too, if it could be located???

Jeremy Kays asks: "do you still have te sources to MM400 Jon?"

Jon Bøhmer replies: "No! Never did in fact... I was the CEO - completely useless as a coder... :-D but I did design the GUI"

Global treasure hunt for Scala source code is on???


M Rickan

Posts 177
09 Nov 2017 02:16


Thierry Atheist wrote:

  Would that be the case for the source code too, if it could be located???
 

Implying that legal action wouldn't be taken against someone for copying old software isn't remotely close to giving away the IP.



Captain Zalo

Posts 71
09 Nov 2017 21:15


Scala is alive and well. The firm is thriving as a multiplatform media provider and controller for content platforms like public screens and infokiosks.

The MM400 platform on the Amiga may be from the computing golden age, but that doesn't mean the software is free of charge as long as it hasn't been officially released for free to the public. As long as the IP has a registered owner, it can't be considered abandonware either.
The IPs belong to Scala, now a US firm. Using and/or modifying their property or redistributing it without their consent, will most certainly end in the likes of subpoenas and lawsuits.

EXTERNAL LINK


Thierry Atheist

Posts 644
10 Nov 2017 04:01


Okay, I got ahead of myself. Sorry about that. But it looked pretty good.

Maybe Scala can be approached at a later date with a Vampire 4 standalone, and see if there's any interest? They might be impressed by a tiny fast low energy computer such as ours.

That's still always open as a possibility, right?


Captain Zalo

Posts 71
10 Nov 2017 18:54


At the moment, the Android (ARM) version of Scala is both more efficient, cheaper and versatile than a Vampire-version. Vampire runs hella fast with 20 year old OS architecture and even the benchmarks in here sport framerates from 20-odd years old games with results that were impressive in the late 90s.
As it stands, the Vampire is an enthusiast platform that might ressurrect the Amiga, but only for a teeny tiny market - the minuscule congregation of the 68k church that is us.
However; If the Apollo Core ends up in a 1 GHz+ low voltage package and is mass produced, it might be viable. The market for effective SBCs with proper developer tools can become an integrated media giant in a few years, given the proper nurturing and care.
The ARM processors have risen to fight with the mastodonts Intel and AMD on low power media platforms. The Acorn line of RISC computers running early ARM chips was, like the Amiga and Atari, curbstomped by the aggressive marketing ploy from Intel and Microsoft in the nineties. That and poor leadership in Commodore, Motorola, IBM and several other hardware makers made the situation what it is on desktop computing. Thanks to Google's Android, the RaspberryPi foundation and focus on resuscitating ARM cores in phones and tablets, there might be hope.

I like your dreams. I'd love to see the Amiga as more than a curiosity as well; I even hope for it to be a living, breathing, competitive platform in 3-4 years.


Samuel Crow

Posts 424
12 Nov 2017 06:47


Hollywood can play old Scala scripts using its Malibu plugin, which is now freeware.  And it already works with Apollo core's truecolor modes under P96.


Miki Popovic

Posts 16
25 Mar 2019 21:04


I trying to find any scala script, for testing, only demos from Scala...

posts 7