The Sinclair QL Forum

Paul Holmgren and Frank Davis who own the US rights to QDOS have now confirmed that they are willing for QDOS to be distributed freely with emulators in the USA and Canada.

There is a minor proviso on that, in that Paul / Frank would like to be kept advised of any projects which are developed using QDOS and sent a copy.

All they own is the right to make new copies of QDOS within the US. If the copy is made outside the US, lawfully, it can be freely imported into the US. If the copy is pre-existing, it is covered by First Sale Doctrine.

To avoid having to deal with that issue at all (and to keep things simple) my little project uses Minerva.

That said, it is far too late for this change to come, in the same way that it was far too late when this change came for SMSQ/E - there will sadly be no major new developments with either OS.

Dave wrote:All they own is the right to make new copies of QDOS within the US. If the copy is made outside the US, lawfully, it can be freely imported into the US. If the copy is pre-existing, it is covered by First Sale Doctrine.

To avoid having to deal with that issue at all (and to keep things simple) my little project uses Minerva.

That said, it is far too late for this change to come, in the same way that it was far too late when this change came for SMSQ/E - there will sadly be no major new developments with either OS.

Actually, Paul thought that they had given this approval in 2009 (!) so maybe we missed something.

It is however, important for q-emulator which is of course made and distributed in the USA - maybe Paul's recollection relates to Daniele asking for permission...

For Q-emuLator I got permission from them in 2007 (before then, it was distributed with Minerva only, and before Minerva was public domain it came with no ROM).