Incidentally, your observations about the DMCA aren't incompatible with mine. I'd never thought of the entire platform (or even the firmware portion of it) as fitting under the "dongle" definition, lol.
idk Atari's policies either. Like you say, ancient machinery (like the Lynx) is generally ignored, essentially becoming abandonware. I suspect Atari wouldn't bother challenging my attempts to play with Lynx hardware/firmware/software unless
1) I was somehow trying to make money off it, selling the games or game systems or Atari brand or whatever,
2) Atari already has (or plans to have) a re-release of the stuff I'm tinkering with,
3) the Lynx incorporates some specific technology which is somehow classified or - worse - now the intellectual property of somebody else.
Not to sound like I'm a criminal (or violate TCBS terms, lol) ... but I personally lean quite heavily into the anti-DRM mindset. This doesn't necessarily mean I download tons of pirated torrents, nor does it mean that I distribute them either. But it does mean that if I buy a machine, or software, or music, or movies then I feel entitled to do whatever I damned well please with the media (in private, lol). Even if that means, for example, getting modded DVD±R firmware or software which strips watermarks, or whatever. (All defined as technically illegal under DMCA.)
In any case - diverting threadjack - the Lynx is a really neat-looking little gadet. I'm not so impressed with the Portfolio, to me it just looks like a primitive rudimentary PDA.