CompuServe Messages

Yes, (the lawsuit) is what Commodore (and Apple, for that matter) would do. You may not remember, but the whole PC clone thing came as a result of two things. First, they contracted out the operating system to Microsoft, who retained rights to it and could sell it to others (MS-DOS), and second, I think it was Phoenix who first did the Rom Bios, but anyway, when the Roms were duplicated, IBM chose not to press it. This may have hurt them some, but helped the platform immeasurably. Many companies have tried messing with Apple's Roms, Apple has fended off all it co with lawsuits or threats of lawsuits. They're still trying… what you've got to do is document each step of your development process, in a closed lab, to prove you didn't copy it. Some guy is supposedly close now. Commodore doesn't have quite the legal muscle of Apple, but have provided trouble for would-be cloners, including wrecking one attempt at a laptop already by not letting them liscense the chips. (Commodore DOES liscense its chips a lot, particularly for arcade video games that don't threaten it). Right now, as much as I hate to say it, the main reason for no Amiga clones is pr probably because the clone masters in the far east have no desire to make one. Even the best U.S. based clone makers (like Gateway) get their parts from various places, primarily in the far east. Anyways, I think the Amiga (not Commodore-Amiga, the Amiga in general) would be stronger today if Commodore allowed unlimited cloning. Clone companies usually come up with a plethora of expansions to original specs, like new video modes, etc. and all IBM has to do is basically take one that has been done before, do it, and call it the new standard. But it is progress.