IP of the original Commodore kinda got scattered after the breakup in the 1990s. The Youtuber AIUI have the trademarks, so they can call themselves Commodore, and sell Commodore branded computers.

The original C64 ROMs (along with AmigaOS) are owned by a company called Cloanto. (Well, I suspect with Amiga OS in particular, it's probably more complicated than that). Not sure if you have to licence MS BASIC separately, or if the favourable deal Jack Tramiel negotiated way back when still covers it.

This split is why the mini C64/A500 units a few years back had actual Commodore software, but didn't have Commodore branding, as they could get a deal with Cloanto, but not the previous owners of the C= logo etc.

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zozbot234 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

The new Commodore folks seem to be on friendly terms with Cloanto, so this MIT-licensed release from Microsoft is great news for them and I wonder if it was partly instigated by the Commodore developments. If only because, in principle, it saves everyone the effort and cost of having a difficult negotiation over something as silly as the purported IP value of those old BASIC ROMs.

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snvzz 6 days ago | parent [-]

It is a shame that, even today, none of these Commodore or Amiga ROMs are open source, or even free to use/distribute.

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LocalH 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

They're easy to find if you want them. If you ever owned any of the relevant machines, then I'd say you're even morally in the correct. Feel free to send Commodore or Cloanto some cash for your use if you feel so inclined. Cloanto even offer packages for both C64 and Amiga that include the most relevant ROMs (and Workbenches, in the case of the Amiga).

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zozbot234 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It's obviously inconvenient but I wouldn't call it "a shame". It's historically quite normal, open source/free to use just wasn't a common thing back then.

	▲	snvzz 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		It has nothing to do with back then, and everything to do with the IPs current owners[0]. 0. https://sites.google.com/site/amigadocuments/

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snvzz 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>Well, I suspect with Amiga OS in particular, it's probably more complicated than that

Way more complicated in fact, as documented in Amiga Documents[0].

0. https://sites.google.com/site/amigadocuments/

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lysace 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Thanks. Odd product portfolio: https://cloanto.com/