The web is awash with back alley solutions for HTC owners tired of waiting for the Taiwanese titan to release the latest version of Android, but the days of readily available ROM hacks could be coming to an end after HTC got the lawyers involved.

Shipped-ROMs, which hosts many of the hacks, has been issued with a cease and desist letter from HTC claiming that the site fraudulently obtained its intellectual property and demanding that the ROMs (OS installation packages) be removed immediately.

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The community of developers, led by the software hacker known as "Coinflipper", has been behind many of the more prominent hacks of recent times, bringing Android 2.1 and the like to phones like the Hero, while HTC drags its feet over upgrading the operating system.

Coinflipper says he'll try to keep the site online, but early indications are that he may struggle to do so. The move from HTC seems to go against the spirit of the open source Android OS, but it's more the use (or misuse) of the Sense UI and other user interfaces that HTC is upset about.

The situation would be helped if HTC pacified the baying masses by rolling out the new versions of Android sooner. It's just too much for some watching people strut around with live wallpapers and Google Maps Navigation.

Link: Shared-Roms (via Mobile Crunch)