Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!orca!anvil!stank
From: stank@anvil.WV.TEK.COM (Stan Kalinowski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: official tos 1.4 release
Message-ID: <5115@orca.WV.TEK.COM>
Date: 25 Oct 89 21:09:53 GMT
References: <4634aec9.14a1f@force.UUCP> <1734@atari.UUCP> <9831@chinet.chi.il.us> <1989Oct22.195156.14155@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Sender: nobody@orca.WV.TEK.COM
Reply-To: stank@anvil.WV.TEK.COM (Stan Kalinowski)
Distribution: comp.sys.atari.st
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville, OR
Lines: 60

In article <1989Oct22.195156.14155@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> nemeth@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Gabe Nemeth) writes:
>What I find annoying is that ROMs that fix bugs in the operating system
>that was promised years ago is costing me $100.  Surely Atari could
>afford to foster some loyalty by offering a "nominal" trade in price
>for ROMs.

C'mon folks, give Atari a break.  They're trying to provide support
for their product and all they get are complaints.  Trade-in's on ROMs
don't make sense, they don't have any intrinsic value so what's the
point of trading them in?  It's not like a used car where the
manufacturer could resell it.  Mask programmed ROMs cannot be reused,
so they have no value.  Why should Atari take them on trade in?  

Most manufacturers of industrial computers charge some sort of annual
software maintainence fee, for this fee you may or may not get your
bugs fixed, depending on how severe they are.  Atari is simply doing
the same thing, only they are doing it on a "pay as you go" basis.  I
realize that Atari is selling into the consumer market and customer
expectations are different, but I don't think their upgrade policies
are any different than the other home computer vendors.

>  The mac os is essentially free (you can buy an official disk
>for $45) and I wonder how the copywrite would affect TOS. 

$45 doesn't seem much like free to me.  I think you are really
alluding to the fact that Mac os releases are sold on disks and are
thus easier to illegaly pirate.  (I don't know what Apple's view of
copying is, but I suspect they don't approve.)  You must also keep in
mind the cost of the distribution media, Apple ships their OS upgrades
on 3.5 in. floppies which cost significantly less than the six ROMs
that Atari is using.  Also, the ROM set is going for $90 in my area,
so it sounds like your dealer is overcharging, unless that $100
includes installation, in which case it's a good deal.

> Are updates
>to TOS separately copywrited?  If I own a copy of TOS 1.0, am I legally
>entitled to make an updated copy to 1.4?  

I'm not a copyright expert, but I don't believe copyright law entitles
me to an update.  When is the last time you heard of anyone getting a
new copy of a book when the revised edition comes out?  TOS 1.4 is not
the same as TOS 1.0, you are not making a copy of TOS 1.0 when you
copy a TOS 1.4 ROM, thus the "backup copy" clause of copyright law
does not apply.  Making a copy of a TOS 1.4 ROM that you do not own
for your personal use is a violation of copyright law.

DISCLAIMERS:

These opinions are my own and have nothing to do with Tektronix.

I do not represent Atari, I am only an St owner.  I also own an IBM
PC.  I sometimes use an Apple Macintosh at work.  I don't LOVE any of
those machines, they all suck, one way or another.

							stank

US Mail: Stan Kalinowski, Tektronix, Inc., Interactive Technologies Division
         PO Box 1000, MS 61-028, Wilsonville OR 97070   Phone:(503)-685-2458
e-mail:  {ucbvax,decvax,allegra,uw-beaver}!tektronix!orca!stank
    or   stank@orca.WV.TEK.COM