Hi,

 of course all of Olaf's points are valid points.

 However, since some of them also would apply to
 AROS - especially the trademark and patent fraction -
 one perhaps needs to go a little bit more into
 detail to clarify this as well:

   - does a clone of amigaguide.library really mean
     infringement ? (depends on trademark category
     and applied rules)

   - wouldn't it be posible to just rename the
     library to e.g. "ag.library" and let Exec's
     OpenLibrary() function do a transparent
     replacement ("amigaguide" becomes "ag"
     whenever being faced) ? (to be evaluated)

   - we're almost sure about the patents (although
     perhaps not in detail) but have all the trademarks
     really be moved/prolonged over all these years ?
     For all the countries ? (to be evaluated)

 IMHO calling a desktop surface "Workbench" in advertising
 and maybe on-screen could be a problem. However, using
 an internal public screen name that is "Workbench"
 does not necessarily have to mean a violation as well.

 Since trademarks mainly refer to advertising and public
 product identification, not internals and hidden structures...

 I'd say, there's need for further evaluation, at
 least concerning AROS or other derivates like PowerOS.

--
Andreas_Kleinert@gmx.de --- SuperView development & distribution
PerSuaSiVe SoftWorX - Software Engineering Amiga/Wintel and more
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