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A word about LEDBlinky…

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Vanguard:

I'm not saying you're under any legal obligation.   I'm just saying that most people in the community give their software away and when you build on that and then charge for it, it seems wrong.  

In my opinion, everyone doing software should get paid.   The hardware vendors often release products that are mostly useless without the community stepping up and doing the software work (almost always with no significant compensation for the work).

Software on its own is very difficult to sell because it is so easily pirated and because there is a mentality that if MAME is free, why should I pay for any software to support MAME?

I don't really understand why everyone gets their underwear in a knot when they see someone selling a MAME cabinet on Ebay but don't see the problem with someone selling software that builds on MAME or other peoples free work.

Again, just my 2 cents.





CheffoJeffo:


--- Quote from: Vanguard on May 03, 2010, 11:35:38 am ---I'm just saying that most people in the community give their software away and when you build on that and then charge for it, it seems wrong.  

--- End quote ---

I agree 100% -- arzoo must stop immediately!

And I don't care that the core functionality remains in the free version!





--- Quote from: Vanguard on May 03, 2010, 11:35:38 am ---In my opinion, everyone doing software should get paid.
--- End quote ---

Wait ... I agree with that one too ...  :dizzy:





In reality, it is the underlying licenses that matter, not whether anybody "wants" or "thinks it is wrong" to pay.

Hell, how many commercial products are built on freeware ? Hint: there are some doozies.

Bender:


--- Quote from: Vanguard on May 03, 2010, 11:35:38 am ---I'm not saying you're under any legal obligation.   I'm just saying that most people in the community give their software away and when you build on that and then charge for it, it seems wrong.  

--- End quote ---

I respect your opinion but I disagree with this point


It certainly started out as free software, and we should all be grateful it was free for so long, in fact, I had to force him to take a donation back in the day

But things evolve and circumstances change
More vendors are asking for support. Arzoo has enormous amount of time and effort in the project. It completely makes sense to me that he get compensated to add new support, functions and features to this project
I don't see anything wrong with that

Everyone that has it, still has it for free, so it's not like he is retroactively charging people
We will have to pay in the future if we want to upgrade, but that is certainly everyone's own choice



Vanguard:

My point is that if MAME is free, people shouldn't expect to get paid for writing software for MAME.  

I do think people should get paid for writing software.  However, if you're doing it to support a community that is strongly grounded in not charging for the work, it seems wrong to try to charge.  Especially when your work relies on people who have volunteered their work freely.

If MAME ever decides to start charging (which I think they should), then the rest of the community should feel free to as well.



Vanguard:


--- Quote from: Bender on May 03, 2010, 12:33:37 pm ---More vendors are asking for support.

--- End quote ---

Then the vendors should pay.

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