exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

The website is still up. It gives the impression you can still buy the software but there is no way to contact them.

I have tried contacting both email addresses but the main one bounced.

http://www.nvdi.de/gb/index.html

Wilfried.Behne@t-online.de bounced , webmaster@nvdi.de awaiting reply.

I have tried to find information on who owns the domain or who is paying the bills or when it expires but have been unsuccessful.

The only info I can see is on AF back in 2006 where someone tried to contact them https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=8790 and https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13297 Though I would think by now there be 277billion spam emails to that account. So I don't think they ever going to read emails.

I guess this is the same old dilemma with old software. If companies are no longer trading for 10+ years and no way to contact them.. Any copyrights or patents I would assume would have all expired by now anyway ? Last I looked into it all it cost a phenomenal amount of money to get worldwide copyright coverages.

After looking for the company on Google..


I don't know if any Germans out there want to ring the number and see if anything happens?

Looks like it was transferred to/sold by ASH.

ASH look like a going concern?

chronicthehedgehog wrote: 18 Dec 2023 16:19 Looks like it was transferred to/sold by ASH.

ASH look like a going concern?

I contacted them as well.. I don't see any prices on their site though..

I kind of basically assume they was a distributor and don't actually own the software.

Seems others have tried contacting them throughout the years as well with no reply.

exxos wrote: 18 Dec 2023 16:28 I contacted them as well.. I don't see any prices on their site though..

I kind of basically assume they was a distributor and don't actually own the software.

Seems others have tried contacting them throughout the years as well with no reply.

If you search for ASH on LinkedIn a few names come up like Volker Ritzhaupt, Oliver Buchmann.

I don't know if you use LinkedIn. I try and avoid it. Literally makes me feel nauseous :D

chronicthehedgehog wrote: 18 Dec 2023 17:11 I don't know if you use LinkedIn. I try and avoid it. Literally makes me feel nauseous :D

Nope, I have never used it. Never understood why people bother with it really.

exxos wrote: 18 Dec 2023 17:45

chronicthehedgehog wrote: 18 Dec 2023 17:11 I don't know if you use LinkedIn. I try and avoid it. Literally makes me feel nauseous :D

Nope, I have never used it. Never understood why people bother with it really.

LinkedIn could be useful, e.g. it would allow to contact with ASH team members :)
I've just send them invitation, without that I have no possibility to send them a message

I talked to Wilfried Behne a few years ago on LinkedIn about open sourcing NVDI. The basic gist of it was that he had no problem with it, but couldn't do it due to NVDI using some proprietary font engine in it's code. The proprietary font engine is(was?) still owned/protected by another company, forget which one. I contacted them at the time but they were still protective of the code.

So end result I don't think it's commercial anymore, but can't be open-sourced unless the proprietary code was excised.

It's worth noting that MagiC, which shares much of the NVDI code, has been open-sourced.

https://github.com/th-otto/MagicMac

My guess is it doesn't have the fonts.

Whether it's possible to distill the VDI into a standalone MagiCVDI* as direct NVDI substitute, I'd need to defer to real programmers on.

BW

* reading the doco, MagiCVDI is called MVDI. Reading the source it's basically NVDI 3.

TheNameOfTheGame wrote: 19 Dec 2023 13:51 The proprietary font engine is(was?) still owned/protected by another company, forget which one.

Bitstream fonts perhaps

TheNameOfTheGame wrote: 19 Dec 2023 13:51 I talked to Wilfried Behne a few years ago on LinkedIn about open sourcing NVDI. The basic gist of it was that he had no problem with it, but couldn't do it due to NVDI using some proprietary font engine in it's code. The proprietary font engine is(was?) still owned/protected by another company, forget which one. I contacted them at the time but they were still protective of the code.

So end result I don't think it's commercial anymore, but can't be open-sourced unless the proprietary code was excised.

Would it be possible to reconnect with him just to verify in writing that the community can freely distribute NVDI ?

Would be awesome if we could get the source code but understand it may not be that simple..