Fund for CTL/ROL to come to a legal agreement regarding ownership and future revenue sharing

Yes OK, it’s surely outside of ROOL’s remit… And watch out! Here come those flying pigs again.

Lawyers aren’t cheap, and they don’t work at reduced rates or for free just because it’s RISC OS. Just think of how many programming hours you could buy for the cost of paying the legal fees of one or both sides…

I think you will find that the cost involved will be quite small IF both parties can first work out what it is that they could both agree to. It is then simply a matter of documenting that in a formal agreement. The more legally secure you want it (i.e. the less you trust each other) the more expensive it will be. Complete waste of money trying to tie it up too tightly as there isn’t enough money in the RISC OS market for anyone to sue each other if someone flaunts the agreement!!

One thing has changed in the last few years that might just make things easier. When this branch of RISC OS was open sourced, there was a possibility that it might be used commercially and therefore make Castle/Iyonix some money. I think that possibility has now vanished. Who would use anything other than Linux? (The distro is irrelevant to the discussion.) Therefore the only remaining money to be made out of RISC OS is, I suggest, on the same scale as RISC OS Ltd makes. Not worth much of a fight over.

I did read a headline a few days ago that pointed out that Linux has won everywhere except the desktop. It’s an interesting point of view.

Dave: ARMini.

http://www.armini.co.uk/

Andrew: as soon as I saw the announcement about the ARMini, it was apparent that something had to change to make that possible without opening up the licensing fight all over again.

However, looking at the wider picture, there is still a licence on RO5 that restricts what we can do – John Ballance didn’t want RISC OS “poisoned” with GPL code. Perhaps we can look forward to a change in the licence terms that would allow us to add (for example) GPL code without a conflict.

Who would use anything other than Linux?

There was a guy I spoke with at the Wakefield show who’s involved in designing embedded systems for use within the NHS (IIRC). He’s a partner in the company (i.e. considerable decision-making influence) and has historical experiences with RISC OS. AIUI he sees advantages of RISC OS over Linux. Perhaps this was discussed at the ROOL stand too. Ring any bells? If so, did he give you a business card?

it was apparent that something had to change to make that possible without opening up the licensing fight all over again.

There is no “fight”. There are just silly statements made by individuals on Usenet from time to time. Each ARMini includes a commercially licensed copy of RO5, complete with licence number in the printed documentation.