Date   : Mon, 30 Jan 1995 11:34:22 +0000 (GMT)
From   : Bonfield James <jkb@...>
Subject: Re: ROM images

>And still no-one has offered a copy of the 8271 D(N)FS ..... surely someone 
>reading this could upload a copy to Mark's site?
>
>Thanks,
>Phil

I used the Watford DFS (V1.43) with it and didn't have any errors from disc
access. However whenever I press a key I get "-ve key trans row=1col=0sym=0"
type of messages. This was on a DEC Alpha system running OSF/1 V3.0.

Anyway, regarding the roms, I can hardly make the watford DFS available as
this most definitely isn't a 'standard' rom that comes default with beebs
kitted out with a disk drive (although it is infact a very good DFS). The same
really applies for the BBC I guess. Just having a BBC doesn't imply you've got
the acorn 8271 DFS chip. There was a free DFS that someone wrote (it's at
Ian's site I think) which may well work well enough to be suitable. I haven't
tried it though.

I think the solution mentioned of encrypting with a password would work.
Although there still is the problem of whether you're then making a "derived
work" available to people which is also illegal I think.

I tried to contact acorn about this (well, the Basic rom and the OS infact)
matter well over a year ago and was fobbed off from person to person. When I
finally found the (supposedly) correct person to talk to (David Bell as I
recall) I received a reply saying that I should state my intentions clearly
and they'd think about things. I never received a reply to my 'statement' or
to any of my subsequent queries. Pretty hopeless really.

As for the fact that distributing this code isn't going to effect acorn - in
their eyes it will. They have a market for BBC emulators that they are
currently exploiting (ie the !65Host or whatever it's called on the Arc).
       
       James