Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!gumby!obryan
From: obryan@gumby.cc.wmich.edu (Mark O'Bryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: ROM
Message-ID: <724@gumby.cc.wmich.edu>
Date: 19 May 89 15:08:13 GMT
References: <8905171833.AA01200@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu>
Organization: Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
Lines: 73

In article <8905171833.AA01200@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu>, cmm1@CUNIXA.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Christopher M Mauritz) writes:
> 
> computer that I saw fit.  What do you think about this?  Myself and a
> couple of friends are (1) really impatient for the ROM upgrade (which
> Tramiel just said wouldn't be available anyway for the 1040) and (2)
> very curious to see if we can "improve" and debug this version of TOS
> enough to suit our needs.  BTW, both of my friends are PhD candidates

First off, I'd be curious to know which Tramiel said that the ROM
upgrade would not be available for the 1040's, and in what context
the remark appeared.  That's not my understanding, nor does it jivv
with any of the many comments from Atari people here on the net.
And if it's not true, do we really need to stir up a hornet's nest
of rumor and speculation?  We've been told that they WILL be made
available, the only question is when.

Secondly, there is no way for Atari to know (or care) what you do
with your ST in the privacy of your own home.  Disassemble the ROMs,
rewrite the whole 192 kB to your liking, and enjoy.  Or tear your
machine apart, and scatter the pieces all over your yard.  Whatever
turns you on.

Where your rights stop, and Atari's begin, however, is when you
distribute copies of your "derivative work".  And that's what you
will have created, since you based your work staring with the Atari
ROMs.  Since Atari holds copyrights (at the very least) on the
contents of their ROMs (just like every other manufacturer), you
will be breaking the law and exposing yourself to prosecution if
you distribute your variant.  Even if you don't sell it, or intend
to profit by it in any way, but simply give it away to a friend,
that is an infraction.

Your message started by saying that this was just for "your own
little ST".  It ended by admitting that this would be a team
project, involving at least 3 people, with distribution to others
(like yourself) who are simply observing.  Whether you can get
away with it (i.e., will Atari chose to sue you) is a separate
issue from the question you asked, and depends on a number of
factors.  But strictly speaking, John Townsend was correct in
informing you that what you were proposing was illegal.

There are a couple of ways you might avoid legal entanglements.
One would be to simply distribute ONLY your changes, as a set
of patches to be applied to the Atari-owned ROMs.  I'd don't
know how practical this would be, due to the number of ROM
variants (from Atari) that exist (i.e., different date codes
within the same ROM version level).

Another possibility would be to rewrite the ROMs yourself,
WITHOUT disassembling them first, based ONLY on the published
documentation and specifications.  I also doubt this would be
practical, due to the quality/accuracy of available documenta-
tion.  This would be required if you wanted to run any of the
standard software that depends on the Atari ROMs.  Of course,
if you don't care about that, and only want to run something
like Minix (for example) you could start from scratch.  But
Minix already seems to run pretty well without resorting to
the Tabula Rosa approach, so I'm not sure why you'd waste your
time when there are more interesting things to work on.

And lastly, Allan Pratt and many other hardworking people at
Atari have already put a lot of work into fixing exactly the
bugs and problems you're annoyed with.  It didn't sound to
me like it was exactly a picnic, and they had the commented
source code to start with.  Do you really think you could do
better?  Why not just keep your pants on and see what TOS 1.4
has to offer.  If you don't like THAT, THEN you can start
bitching.  ;-)

-- 
Mark T. O'Bryan                 Internet:  obryan@gumby.cc.wmich.edu
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI  49008