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BeOS for sale
0033 - December 13th, 2007

Beosradio has been selling installation cd’s for BeOS personal edition for some time, but recently they have created an Ebay offer for their ‘distro’ called BuzzCD. BuzzCD bundles BeOS R5 PE with a whole load of freeware. The apps included are mostly audio-related but there’s also things like ArtPaint, Landscape, Pe and a couple of games. The full software listing can be found here.

BuzzCD includes installers for both Windows and Linux and installs to a 500 MB file, just like the original PE from BE inc. did.

There’s already discussions going on at the Haiku mailing lists whether or not this is legal. Strictly taken it probably is not. The fact that BuzzCD does not allow you to install to a separate partition (without hacking) makes it nothing more that plain PE with a bunch of freely available apps printed to a cd for your convenience. I can’t see why Access, the current owner of Be inc.’s assets, would have any problem with this.

Of course everything included on the cd is available for free download on the net but if you have a medieval connection, or hate downloading and installing lots of separate application this might be your thing. BuzzCD sells for seven and a half dollars ex. shipping.

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3 Comments

Stephen B. on 2007-12-13 at 22:05 (Reply)

There’s already discussions going on at the Haiku mailing lists whether or not this is legal.

I would guess "probably not" - but the more relevant detail (IMHO at least) is whether or not there is any likelihood of Access doing anything about it. I would guess that "probably not" is the answer to that question as well, at least based on the semi-official stance Access has taken regarding BeOSMax.

And these days, after Palm/Access has had ownership of the Be IP for the better part of a decade (and have made absolutely no use of it in released products), I suspect we've long passed the point at which taking legal action regarding BeOS IP would cost more than it would be worth.

BiPolar on 2007-12-14 at 10:51 (Reply)

No ending beeing the target of legal actions doesn't makes a wrong action any better.

Don't do what you're not entitled to do.

I believe this sends the wrong message to people, specially to "outsiders".

Stephen B. on 2007-12-17 at 18:45 (Reply)

No ending beeing the target of legal actions doesn’t makes a wrong action any better.

Not that I'm advocating breaking the law, but I'm certainly sympathetic to the position that Dane has been put in WRT TuneTracker. With the exception of the handful of places that still offer copies of R5 Pro, there's not any entirely legal way to run TuneTracker: ZETA is questionable for obvious reasons, Haiku isn't complete/stable enough at this point, and the PE license prohibits use for commercial purposes (which would rule out most installations of TuneTracker, I imagine).

Also, I'm not sure if it applies to IP law, but in criminal law there's a concept known as "de minimis" - basically, the idea is that some crimes, while still technically illegal, are so trivial as to not be worth the effort to punish. At this point, I think there is every indication that Access simply doesn't care.

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