I actually always supposed that Melbourne's publishing of the Spectrum ROM was by consent of Sinclair Research; after all, it greatly helped software developers

I actually always supposed that Melbourne's publishing of the Spectrum ROM was by consent of Sinclair Research; after all, it greatly helped software developers to make new software titles and devise even greater hacks for the machine, thus making it more attractive for buyers. The ROM did display a copyright message, so it should have been clear that it was Sinclair's property. I recall I wrote my own loader for an adventure game that I designed; it was so nice to have a slightly different loading sound and different colours flashing at the sides of the screen. The loader of course was based on the ROM routine, but with different timings (to increase the loading speed from 1500 bit/s to about 2200 bit/s). The game was probably not very imaginative, and sold less than a dozen copies, but it later got me a job with the local Spectrum/Amstrad distributor. Alas, I've lost all copies.