Discussion and Negotiation
Published on 16th Jun 2004, 18:07:20, source is drobe.co.uk
By Peter Naulls
RISCOS Ltd's Response
Drobe.co.uk understands that RISCOS Ltd's managing director Paul Middleton is away this week, and is therefore not immediately available to answer phone calls or emails, either in reply to Castle's announcement earlier today or other matters. However, this communication from Paul did reach us this evening, and we've published it in full below.
"RISCOS Ltd has always adhered to all the conditions of the Head Licence and totally refutes all allegations now made by Castle Technology Ltd to the contrary," Paul states in his company's response.
"It is greatly saddened by the attitude that Castle has taken which has forced A6 and Virtual Acorn to reluctantly announce that they are ceasing shipments of their fully licensed and paid for RISC OS products"
In the meantime, speculation over the specific nature of the disagreements and historical background has run rife, with those who know the most saying little - most notably, the RISCOS Ltd shareholders.
In March 1999 RISCOS Ltd entered into a licensing agreement with Element14 Ltd which gave it exclusive rights to develop and market RISC OS for the desktop market.
Over the past five years it has licensed RISC OS 4 to many AMSes including Castle Technology Ltd, RiscStation, Microdigital, A6 and Virtual Acorn without any concerns from Element14 or Pace PLC that it was breaching the agreement in any way.
RISCOS Ltd has always adhered to all the conditions of the Head Licence and totally refutes all allegations now made by Castle Technology Ltd to the contrary. It is greatly saddened by the attitude that Castle has taken which has forced A6 and VirtualAcorn to reluctantly announce that they are ceasing shipments of their fully licensed and paid for RISC OS products.
A considerable amount of discussion and negotiation has actually taken place between Castle, Pace and RISCOS Ltd over the past two years, concerning both Castle's ongoing disputed use of RISC OS in the Iyonix PC as well as the more recent demands made by Castle against RISCOS Ltd and the AMSes.
RISCOS Ltd has worked for the benefit of all the companies in the RISC OS community (not just one) and will continue to do so. It trusts that Castle will constuctively discuss the situation to enable an equitable and amicable resolution to be reached for the good of all parties.
Paul Middleton
Managing Director
RISCOS Ltd
Links
RISCOS Ltd
Related articles
New graphics card discussion list
This article has been linked to, or is available in the following formats:
Design and concept (c) Fudgecake Design, 1999 - 2001. Content (c) The Drobe Team, 1999 - 2006. See www.drobe.co.uk for more information. For non-commercial personal use only.