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ntromans
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 16:06:12
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Regular Member |
Joined: 23-Jul-2004 Posts: 110
From: West Midlands, UK | | |
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| @softwarefailure
Hi Andreas, Thanks for the clarification. Hollywood and Designer are superb creative tools, and deserve to go from strenght to strength. I'm sure many here feel the same way as I do in that if there is anything the community can do to help, then please let us know!
My order for Designer 4 will be made by the end of the week...
All the best, Nigel. |
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tekmage
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 17:22:54
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Regular Member |
Joined: 23-Mar-2005 Posts: 439
From: San Francisco | | |
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| @softwarefailure
Thank you for the warning! I'll purchase an upgrade as soon as I get back to the US.
Keep up the great work!
Bill "tekmage" Borsari |
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ChrisH
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 17:43:11
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Elite Member |
Joined: 30-Jan-2005 Posts: 6679
From: Unknown | | |
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| @ddni Quote:
I suspect either a challenge to the use of the Hollywood name, or a buyout from a bigger organisation. |
That is some good speculation... And we have a lot of facts to go on:
1. We have VERY short notice about the shop closure, which strongly suggests he didn't have much notice either.
2. This happened shortly after Android support was announced, which is suggestive of a connection. HOWEVER, the fact that (1) there was under a week between the two events, and that (2) "the Hollywood Player for Android is a WIP snapshot" means I favour the alternative explanation that he was forced to released Android support early, due to the shop closure.
3. The fact that development will continue (at an unknown pace) seems to indicate that he doesn't (yet) have any money problems, nor has he lost interest in Hollywood (nor the ability to work on Hollywood).
4. The hard precise date (no more sales from 1st August) is strongly suggestive of legal reasons. And his refusal to comment about the reason is also very suggestive of legal reasons.
5. The fact that he currently doesn't know if or when the shop will reopen indicates that he is involved in something that will take some time to sort out. A court case would perfectly fit that (although so could other things if we ignored the earlier points).
Now, if you put all of those together, I think there are very few plausible explanations left. Possible ideas:
1. He has received a patent challenge on something Hollywood does, from a patent bully/troll. The legal challenge may have told him to cease & decist selling his patent-violating products by a certain date (i.e. 1st August), or alternatively he chose to close the shop himself to to avoid increasing potential damages (and to avoid distractions from the legal case), at least if/until the case is resolved. This is my favoured explanation. Basically Hollywood got too big (by running on Windows & Mac) for patent trolls to ignore him anymore.
2. Someone is challenging his use of the Hollywood trademark. With the same reasoning as the above idea. Less plausible than patents, but still possible.
3. A buy-out by a larger organisation seems plausible (but doesn't fit all the facts). Presumably the contract would take-effect from 1st August. His recommendation to buy now would be explained by the fact that he doesn't know what form Hollywood will be sold by the new company (e.g. the Amiga side might be dropped from future products). Arguments against this are (1) the short notice seems strange to me, (2) his uncertainty over whether the shop will re-open is strange as he would surely have ensured the contract specified whether he could continue to sell it or not (unless the contract states this is dependant on some as-yet-unknown results or sales performance).
4. I'm not sure if he has been working on Hollywood "full time", but *if* he had, then perhaps that is no-longer viable (for whatever reason). If he started working for another company, there could be legal worries about him continuing to sell something himself. This would seems stupid to me, but the legal system doesn't have to make sense. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of this kinds of issues could comment?
5. There is some internal dispute within Airsoft Softwair (assuming it is larger than one person!), which needs to be resolved by legal means. I have no idea how to guage the plausibility of this, since I know nothing about the person(s) behind the company, but it isn't ruled-out by the above facts.
I do NOT believe the following explanations are likely:
6. A personal tragedy. In that case it is rather more likely he would suddenly become unreachable for some time (and the websites would not be updated), rather than giving us due notice about the shop closure (and hurredly releasing for Android). It also doesn't fit the fact that development will continue.
7. Health problems. This seems very unlikely to me, as how would this affect the shop but not development itself.
P.S. Whatever the explanation, I certainly do NOT expect him to offer further details. Indeed, I am writing this speculation precisely because I don't expect any more. I certainly don't see any harm in speculating on what has already been publically stated.Last edited by ChrisH on 18-Jul-2012 at 06:00 PM.
_________________ Author of the PortablE programming language. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue... |
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JurassicC
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 17:55:24
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Super Member |
Joined: 13-Mar-2003 Posts: 1441
From: Somerset, UK | | |
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| @ChrisH
You can speculate until the cows come home, but regardless of the reason I would suggest anyone who can afford it, should get it why they have the opportunity.
The applet player is still on the play store so if Google have objected I imagine they would already have taken it down.
_________________ A1200T 603e 330Mhz - Mediator TX OS4.1 F.E. CDTV 8MB Fast, OS3.1, SCSI, MicroSD SCSI & CD32 FMV X5000, X1000, A1XE with OS4.1F.E. |
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ddni
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 17:58:19
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Cult Member |
Joined: 11-Jan-2007 Posts: 818
From: Northern Ireland | | |
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| @JurassicC
Unless Google are the source of the challenge and want Android exclusivity, with Google Play being the only shop for Hollywood?
_________________ AmigaOne X1000 |
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JurassicC
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 18:11:54
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Super Member |
Joined: 13-Mar-2003 Posts: 1441
From: Somerset, UK | | |
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| @ddni
Who knows, but being intrigued by ChrisH's post I did a 'google' and Texas Instruments make use of the Trademark Hollywood.
Also the Hollywood chamber of commerse have it as a Trademark _________________ A1200T 603e 330Mhz - Mediator TX OS4.1 F.E. CDTV 8MB Fast, OS3.1, SCSI, MicroSD SCSI & CD32 FMV X5000, X1000, A1XE with OS4.1F.E. |
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Toaks
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 19:02:37
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Elite Member |
Joined: 10-Mar-2003 Posts: 8042
From: amigaguru.com | | |
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| This is a very sad day :(
i hope whatever it the reason is that this will be solved soon.
_________________ See my blog and collection website! . https://www.blog.amigaguru.com |
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phoenixkonsole
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 19:25:38
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Super Member |
Joined: 8-Nov-2009 Posts: 1770
From: Unknown | | |
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| ... Trademarks are only a problem if you use it for the same type of product.
I don't like to speculate. I trust Andreas and if he says he will do support and so on i am fine..
I wish him that someone offered him a billion of $$$$ : )
Last edited by phoenixkonsole on 18-Jul-2012 at 07:25 PM.
_________________ AROS Broadway - AEROS - Aminux - AmiCloud - indieGO! Appstore - AmiWallet - VAN lossless video codec - AMC Amiga media Center -KrypUnite - LibertyNet - MinX - amigaNX |
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jas_mc
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 19:58:18
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Regular Member |
Joined: 7-May-2010 Posts: 232
From: Unknown | | |
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| @Toaks
Agreed. Thought this was an exciting time for AmigaOS - especially with the lower priced Sam boards providing an affordable entry point - so it's a shame that there's suddenly uncertainty about what is clearly one of the top apps
I sincerely hope that this is a temporary problem, and best of luck to the developer. _________________ My new blog |
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klx300r
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 20:24:47
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Elite Member |
Joined: 4-Mar-2008 Posts: 3833
From: Toronto, Canada | | |
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| Quote:
phoenixkonsole wrote:
...... I don't like to speculate. I trust Andreas and if he says he will do support and so on i am fine..
I wish him that someone offered him a billion of $$$$ : ) |
+ 1,000,000 but please Andreas don't sell the company to Apple _________________ ____________________________ c64-2sids, A1000, A1200T-060@50(finally working!),A4000-CSMKIII ! My Master Miggies- Amiga 1000 & AmigaOne X1000 ! mancave-ramblings X1000 I BELIEVE |
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Templario
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 21:40:00
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Elite Member |
Joined: 22-Jun-2004 Posts: 3663
From: Unknown | | |
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| @Rudei The all free that current Amiga users we want... the result this and others soon..
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Moxee
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 22:47:11
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Team Member |
Joined: 20-Aug-2003 Posts: 6291
From: County Yakima, WA State, USA | | |
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| @AmigaBlitter
Quote:
Sigh, i planned to buy in September, so i missed the opportunity. |
I also was planning to buy the whole package later this year. What to do?
_________________ Moxee AmigaOne X1000 AmigaOne XE G4 I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong. |
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Kicko
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 18-Jul-2012 23:52:18
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Elite Member |
Joined: 19-Jun-2004 Posts: 5009
From: Sweden | | |
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| Go and support him is not easy when you dont know what its about. A man in help ok. A man that sold his app or bought to work on other apps on other systems then it doesnt feel like ... yea i go support. you get my thinking.
the same as folks, but i bought this not long ago, if i knew this.... Hey it can happen for every app. No app is continued forever, specially not on a tight system like amiga. And you bought an app that is well known and has new funktions etc. doesnt mean you will get updates for a longer time. and you supported the guy for the software.
for me yes as said without demo i dont know much of it except videos and screenshots. ofcourse if i knew his situation was bad then probably do a gambling and maybe like it.
and the time is not for much thinking either, specially folks that are on vacation. my started this week.
I just hope its not something bad like any company trying to get him down. As said before respect for all good he done and not giving up. Last edited by Kicko on 18-Jul-2012 at 11:54 PM.
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amigang
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 19-Jul-2012 9:14:18
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Elite Member |
Joined: 12-Jan-2005 Posts: 2018
From: Cheshire, England | | |
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| Well this sucks, one of the best program I have used on OS4 so far may have a uncertain future.
It is annoying not knowing whats happened, I hope what ever the issue, it can be resolved and Hollywood can continue.
I will upgrade my copy of designer tomorrow, but I am starting to think if it really worth learning the program if it not got much of a future, I know that's a bit of a daft thought but that's kinda of how I feel. oh well lets hope its nothing to serious.
_________________ AmigaNG, YouTube, LeaveReality Studio |
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1Mouse
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 19-Jul-2012 10:14:09
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Super Member |
Joined: 23-Jun-2005 Posts: 1356
From: Bradford, West Yorkshire | | |
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| @djrikki
Hi,
When did you get v5.1 and if/when will it be released to the general public? _________________ 1 AmigaOne G4XE (OS4 Pre-Release Update4) Minimig Sam440ep + OS4.1FE Sam460cr + OS4.1FE |
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DC_Edge
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 19-Jul-2012 12:28:23
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Regular Member |
Joined: 1-Oct-2003 Posts: 190
From: France | | |
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| Anyway, got my Holly licence some weeks ago.
Just hope there anren't too many lawyers trying to eat that guy who is certainly not doing his month salary with holly sells;)
Last edited by DC_Edge on 19-Jul-2012 at 12:53 PM.
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Pleng
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 19-Jul-2012 12:47:44
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Regular Member |
Joined: 17-Nov-2005 Posts: 458
From: Unknown | | |
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| @ChrisH
Quote:
The fact that development will continue (at an unknown pace) seems to indicate that he doesn't (yet) have any money problems, nor has he lost interest in Hollywood (nor the ability to work on Hollywood).
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As we're speculating anyway...
I disagree with this. If it's financially related then he may well not be able to sell the product from this date onwards. If Hollywood is a labour of love then it is possible that the author could maintain it after going bankrupt, providing updates for free.
Unlikely but who knows. |
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djrikki
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 19-Jul-2012 13:08:09
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Elite Member |
Joined: 22-Jun-2010 Posts: 2077
From: Grimsby, UK | | |
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| @1Mouse
Never said I had it yet, waiting for it like everyone else. _________________
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Metalheart
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 19-Jul-2012 14:58:44
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Elite Member |
Joined: 21-Aug-2003 Posts: 2969
From: Somewhere in the Dutch mountains.... | | |
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| THERE !!
Ordered an upgrade from 3 to 5 of both hollywood and designer....
I wonder if the amount of "last minute' purchases' is sky rocketing. I hope it is
Cheers,
All the best
Martin
_________________ Theres a time to live and a time to die When its time to meet the maker Theres a time to live but isnt it strange That as soon as you're born you're dying |
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Trekiej
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Re: Hollywood News - Site closing down from July 31st? Posted on 19-Jul-2012 21:59:06
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Cult Member |
Joined: 17-Oct-2006 Posts: 890
From: Unknown | | |
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| I hope he can clarify soon as to what is going on with it.
_________________ John 3:16 |
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