>IIRC, Franklin admitted the copying, saying that Apple's ROMs were
>too difficult to reverse-engineer easily!
That's a little different from what I've heard. According to a comment
by Raymond McAnally on <
http://www.applefritter.com/appleclones/franklin/
ace500/index.html>:
"The rumor I heard was that during the lawsuit, Franklin made no attempt
to deny that they had copied the Apple ROM's. Instead their defense was
that since the only way to make the computer was to use the ROM's, Apple
was unfair in not licensing the ROM for other distributors. So for a few
years until the case was finally settled, Apple was forced to license the
ROM's to Franklin. The result was that Franklin lost and had to cease all
computer production. The decision was so broad that they couldn't even
make PC clones. They did make one before the decision. I spoke with a
franklin exec years ago who told me that in the end the results were a
blessing in disguise. They moved out of computers and into the handheld
area and ended up growing larger than they ever could as a clone maker."
Tom
Applefritter
www.applefritter.com
Received on Sun Jun 17 2001 - 20:34:29 BST