I appreciate the gentle nudge toward the search feature without being rude 

  I actually did try that.  I just didn't know what to call it.  I tried:
- mame legal
- mame copyright
- mame disclaimer
One of those got me to the actual .ini setting 
skip_disclaimer 1.  The search feature is a little odd in that it doesn't return your list with the most recent results.
Anyway, thank you for the answer and I'll probably just leave the disclaimer on-screen as it's not hurting anything.
dot