Atari(U.S.)Corp.
                                 1196 Borregas Avenue
                                 Sunnyvale, California 94088-3427
                                 (408) 745-2000

To:     All Atari ST Software Developers

Re:     Copy-Protection Schemes for Atari's ST Series of
        Machines on SF354 and SF314 Drives.

It is in the interests of Atari and our software developers
who support the ST line that their software protection schemes
will work on existing drives as well as new drives to be in-
troduced by Atari.  It is difficult to predict new techno-
logical breakthroughs which may affect copy-protection schemes
but at the least to allow for improvement in technology the
following should be borne in mind:

1.      Schemes that depend on timing based on 3 MS track to
        track stepping rates may not work for all drives.
        Technological advances may permit faster stepping rates
        or stepping rates other than the presently used rates.

2.      Schemes that depend on timing considerations based on
        the present existing SF354 or SF314 drives cannot be
        guaranteed to work on future product introductions.
        For example, an electronic buffer (for whatever reasons)
        may be interposed between an ST and a drive and this
        would cause the drive to not behave precisely as pre-
        sently existing units.

We will be introducing very shortly a series of new drives.
If you want to ensure your software will work on the new drives,
please write to us and ask us to test your software on the new
drives with respect to readability of copy protected disks.
(You, will, of course, have to send the software to the U.S.)

You can also order one of the new drives to test yourself.  Please
mention specifically the new drive and the reason for the order.