🚀 go-pugleaf

Recently, I posed the following question in the Atari ST roundtable
on GEnie (actually, I did not phrase it exactly like this, but this
is the gist of what I said):

Would I have any legal problems with Atari if I disassembled the ROM
code, altered it to suit my individual needs, and then burned a new set
of ROMs for my machine?  I also stated that the ROMS would be used only
in my machine and that (1) I would not release the original code to
anyone and (2) I wouldn't release the bastardized code to anyone
either.  All of this is for my own little 1040ST.

Well, a Mr. Townsend replied that he thought the process was illegal,
but he didn't give a reason.  I can't understand why.  If that is
illegal then wouldn't it be illegal to modify the carburator in my new
Ford, etc...?  Oh yeah, this guy was from Atari.  A few other users saw
things my way.  I personally thought that after the purchase of my
computer it was my right to change/alter/modify any part of the
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
in Comp Sci and one of them is involved in heavy OS research.  Hehe,
I'm just gonna watch and maybe learn a bit in the process.  We have
tons of equipment to burn the ROMs and a very cheap source of EPROMs.
What do the rest of you netters think?

Curious as hell,

Chris Mauritz
cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu
No points for 2nd BEST!