In message <001301c213a9$8e90a4c0$d299893e@macnamarxmjd3y>, Mike MacNamara <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes <SNIP> >> OK. Compare the first proposal with the actual licence. Ask >> yourself: did "the other side" make many/any concessions? Yes, >> so I have saved face and can accept it. >I did not think your livelihood was derived from QLs, or your >capital tied up in it, what I meant was if my back was to the >wall I would be looking to save face here, it is a no win >situation. OK reality check here. What do you actually know about the situation? When I was selling the Q40 Peter Graf had no financial commitment apart from sourcing the parts. Tony Firshman and I paid for the parts. He did pay for the circuit boards and the 'licence chips and we paid him back for these. All of the financial burden was on our shoulders. Peter would not give Tony Firshman the circuit diagram at the start because 'he will steal my ideas' . (Oh did hear someone say Open Source ?).
Peter would not change one thing in his design in spite of the fact that Tony and I pointed out several advantages to making changes and a few real problems. Peter made very little effort to solve any problems that existed in our manufacture. Tony found and bought most of the parts but, because it was me that turned around and said there would be no more money until he made some effort to help us solve the problems. The parts became 'Roy's faulty parts'. In fact some of the problems were with his faulty EPROM's and 2nd hand video ram. I refunded money and gave away free copies of QPC2 (which I paid for) to a few users who waited for ages for a Q40 which I could not supply because Tony could not get them to work. Peter Graf got 3 times the amount of money per board than Tony or I received. Tony for doing a whole lot of work and me for putting the documentation together, sorting and compiling support disks, testing the code from TT and advertising. In fact Tony and I still have several non working boards so we made a whopping loss. I sympathise with D&D. Peter Graf has a job which, as far as I was led to understand when he was saying things like, 'my job is sending me to Hong Kong etc.' pays well. The only losers here will be the users because there is nothing to stop Peter doing business in the licence - it is just that he has to rely on people who will not do the work because he has alienated all the others. A rod for his own back I believe. -- Roy Wood Q Branch, 20 Locks Hill Portslade. Sussex. BN41 2LB. UK Tel : +44 (0)1273 386030 Fax : +44 (0)1273 430501 (New number!) Mobile +44(0)7836 745501 Web : www.qbranch.demon.co.uk
