Some interesting quotes in chronological order:
(Update: I'm added translations of the german texts)
March 23rd, 2007, Bernd Korz himself
berndsworld.com"Ich gebe heute offiziell bekannt, dass es keinerlei Zusammenarbeit zwischen mir und der Magnussoft mehr gibt. Gleiches gilt für alle Entwickler für das Projekt ZETA die von Magnussoft bezahlt wurden und mit mir gemeinsam daran gearbeitet haben.
Da sich am Team selbst nichts geändert hat arbeiten, wir derzeit in selbem Tempo weiter. Das Update werde ich wie publiziert in Kürze herausgeben."
Translation:
I announce today officially that there is no further co-operation between me and Magnussoft. The same applies to all developers to the project ZETA that were paid by MAgnussoft and worked with me together on it.
Since the team itself did not change, we continue to work at present with same speed. As announced, the update will be published shortly. Montag 26 Maerz 2007 - 16:17:28, magnussoft Deutschland
zeta-os.com"[...] Dieses Bekenntnis untermauerte magnussoft Deutschland im letzten Jahr mit dem Abschluss eines exklusiven Vertriebsvertrages mit Herrn Bernd Korz sowie mit der Bereitstellung und Finanzierung eines speziellen Entwicklerteams für magnussoft® Zeta.
[...] wurde die Finanzierung des Entwicklerteams durch magnussoft® zum 16.03.2007 bis auf weiteres eingestellt.
Hiervon unberührt bleibt die Tätigkeit von magnussoft Deutschland als exklusiver Distributor für magnussoft® Zeta. Die entsprechenden vertraglichen Vereinbarungen sehen dies zunächst bis Ende 2007 vor.
Magnussoft® Deutschland ist auch über diesen Zeitpunkt hinaus an dem Fortbestand von magnussoft® Zeta interessiert. Hierzu werden in der nächsten Zeit Gespräche geführt. [...]"
Translation:
[...] This confession did Magnussoft support in the last year with the conclusion of an exclusive selling contract with Mr. Bernd Korz as well as with the supply and financing of a special developer team for magnussoft® Zeta.
[...] the financing of the developer team was stopped until further notice through magnussoft® to 16.03.2007.
The activity of magnussoft Germany as distributor remains unaffected by this. The appropriate contractual agreements support this to the end of 2007.
Magnussoft® Germany is also beyond this time interested in the continuation of magnussoft® Zeta. For this very soon negotiations will be made. [...]
March 27th, 2007, Bernd Korz himself
berndsworld.com comments
Bernd on 27.03.2007 at 08:14
Ich weiss nichts von irgendwelchen Verhandlungen.
Translation: I'm not aware of any negotiationsApril 2nd, 2007, Bernd Korz himself
berndsworld.com"In den letzten 11 Monaten ist vieles an ZETA passiert und wir konnten ein gutes Stück vorankommen. [...]
Ich werde offiziell die Weiterentwicklung an ZETA einstellen. Ob und wie ich die Sachen opensource stellen werde oder für Haiku zugänglich mache, kann ich zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht sagen. [...]
Zurzeit hat weder die yellowTAB noch die Magnussoft Zugriff auf die Sourcen, dies wird auch bis auf weiteres so bleiben. Sollte sich hier was ändern, so werden beide Parteien das sicherlich selbst publizieren können. Was mich angeht, so wird sich an dieser Tatsache aber auch in Naher Zukunft nichts ändern. Weder sehe ich mich dazu veranlasst noch haben die einzelnen Entwickler einen Wunsch in diese Richtung geäussert. [...]
Frans, is there something to say? Not really :) You made ZETAs Kernel running smooth and did so much beside that for ZETA."
Translation:
“During the last 11 months much work has been done at ZETA and we could advance a lot. [...]
I will stop officially further development at ZETA. Whether and how I will provide the things as open source or will make them accessible for Haiku, I cannot say at this time. [...]
At the moment, neither yellowTAB nor Magnussoft has access to the source code, this will persist until further notice. Should something regarding this change, then both parties will surely be able to publish that. As far as I am concerned, in the near future nothing will change. Neither do I see the need, neither have individual developers expressed a desire. [...]
Frans, is there something to say? Not really :) You made ZETAs Kernel running smooth and did so much beside that for ZETA."
2007-04-04 00:36:15, David "Lefty" Schlesinger, Director, Open Source Technologies, ACCESS Co., Ltd.,
bitsofnews.com"I'd like to correct a major misstatement here: Zeta is not, nor has it ever been, a licensee of PalmSource (or ACCESS, the company which acquired PalmSource year before last) in any way, shape or form. If Zeta or magnussoft has claimed that they have a license with us, that's a complete falsehood.
As the legitimate owners of the intellectual property formerly belonging to Be, our position is that the product marketed by YellowTab and then by magnussoft represents a pirated version of BeOS, done without our permission or approval.
magnussoft is thus in no position to open source anything, since their product, in its entirety, represents a derivative work of our intellectual property."
4. April 2007 um 17:02, golem.de quoting a response received from Bernd Korz,
golem.de"[...] da dies außerhalb meines Kenntnissstandes liegt. Die YellowTab ist, wie Sie wissen, insolvent und wird durch einen Insolvenzverwalter vertreten. Ich selbst bin in keinster Weise mehr involviert, seit nunmehr fast zwölf Monaten. Ebenso liegt mir keinerlei Schriftverkehr diesbezüglich vor"
Translation: [...] since this matters stand outside of my state of knowledge. The YellowTab is insolvent, as you know, and represented by an insolvency manager. I am not involved in any way any more, since nearly the last twelve months. Likewise I do not have any correspondence regarding this topic.2007-04-05 08:58:13, David "Lefty" Schlesinger, Director, Open Source Technologies, ACCESS Co., Ltd.,
osnews.com forum
"I further note that, earlier today, having been unable to locate an email address for Mr. Korz, I posted a comment to his latest blog entry asking that he--while he's waiting for his lawyer to free up an hour--provide me with a copy of the license he claims allows him to produce and market Zeta. The comment, initially "marked for moderation", was promptly deleted. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I've had no word from Mr. Korz in response to my request.
Evidently Mr. Korz is not only uninterested in talking to me, he's equally uninterested in talking to his (ex-)distributor's lawyer. Presumably, he realized some income from sales of Zeta; even with the severing of the relationship between Mr. Korz and Magnussoft, one would have to assume--if he indeed had some legitimate support for his claims--that he'd have some degree of interest in producing it for them."
05 April 2007 - 17:09:12, magnussoft Deutschland,
zeta-os.com
"We immediately approached our licenser for clarification of the legal position. Mr. Korz stated towards our lawyer that he would not be interested in cooperating with magnussoft Deutschland in this matter.
Magnussoft is not in a position to judge the statement of Access Co. Ltd. We do not have any notice of potential contracts or arrangements between Mr. Korz and the legal owner(s) of the BeOS source-code. Due to this legal uncertainty we decided to cease distribution of Zeta."
