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| How do you know your JAMMA PCB is legal? |
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| CheffoJeffo:
--- Quote from: Haze on September 10, 2010, 09:57:10 am ---The ones that run on original hardware (multi-neogeo carts, multi-cps) are also Illegal. --- End quote --- There is a single exception to this that I am aware of -- the Exidy 440 Multis are licensed (well, the recent batch are ... I dunno about the original beta batch). |
| BadMouth:
It all comes down to whether a company wants to pursue the counterfeiters or not. Merit sucessfully tracked down a Megatouch counterfeiter in China and had the owner of the company was arrested. (he was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison) The same factory was making counterfeit Sega and Namco games also, but Merit was the only company to pursue them. If it weren't for them doing their own investigating and pushing the issue, the counterfeiter would still be in business. Any company is within their rights to pursue the issue against any vendor dealing in bootlegs. As stated earlier, it's about profit and profile. The Chinese company had a website & distribution network. Gotta be pragmatic and go on with things....... |
| Haze:
--- Quote from: BadMouth on September 10, 2010, 10:10:11 am ---It all comes down to whether a company wants to pursue the counterfeiters or not. Merit sucessfully tracked down a Megatouch counterfeiter in China and had the owner of the company was arrested. (he was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison) The same factory was making counterfeit Sega and Namco games also, but Merit was the only company to pursue them. If it weren't for them doing their own investigating and pushing the issue, the counterfeiter would still be in business. --- End quote --- Heh, I'm surprised anybody does business with Merit anymore anyway. From what I was reading their more recent Megatouch games require the operators to buy security keys which are good for a certain number of credits and the games 'expire' after that, ie, you can't just run them, you have to keep going back to Merit to top up your 'key' as if it were some kind of Mobile phone. Sounds like a terrible business model to buy into if you're an operator. Assuming it is the same company then it doesn't surprise me that they're one of the most active in the legal department either, because I imagine a LOT of operators are unhappy with this situation, but rather than please their customers, they'd rather take the legal route. |
| SavannahLion:
--- Quote from: Driver-Man on September 10, 2010, 02:34:16 am ---Ok, I agree with all that, thank you all. In summary, I find it interesting people care more about MAME legal warnings than about actual copyright of the game ROMs themselves. Anyway, we all concluded 60-in-1 PCBs can not be legal, but in reality we sure see they're quite "legal". These 48-in-1, 60-in-1 are actually quite wide spread and freely sold and played everywhere, are they not? Even blatant MAME PC based 400-in-1, 1000-in-1... boards are sold everywhere and imported/exported freely, on-line and in retail shops. This is not smuggled and sold under the counter, these are actually taxed by the government, so they are in fact legal, are they not? If you can buy it in retail shop and get an invoice for it, then who can sue you for putting in it in your arcade cabinet and charge for the play? How were you supposed to know? Government took their profit there as well, so they don't seem to care too much? Who cares? Who sues? There is obviously some discrepancy between what people say and what actually is, so I still reserve my doubts that any of the original copyright would really stand in the court. Was there any legal action in relation to any arcade bootlegs, ever? --- End quote --- Once again, understanding how copyright law is applied would help you here. Apparently tax laws as well. Government entities generally don't step in on private matters between two individuals or entities. Generally speaking, government entities would step in when things become a public matter or a safety matter or whatever (I'm not clued in to all the potentials of this). This is partly why you have people throw ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- fits about government control and the extent this is allowed under various constitutions and whatnot. Quite frankly, I don't recall any copyright court case involving a government entity, it's always between two or more private entities. If you know of one, point it out. As for the taxing of a particular product and the apparent "legalization" of that product. This is sort of things occurs all the time (looks up California and Marijuana). Not understanding how governments function is primary cause of frustration amongst private individuals. All too often, people have this misinformed belief that the government is a single entity, that laws that apply to private individuals apply equally public entities (or vice versa) and that these laws universally apply in a sensible matter. This is just how it is, it has nothing to do with right or wrong, whether I agree or disagree. I waste hours each day of my life pointing this out to people, not that it matters miuch, that's within my purview. Truth of the matter, laws are rarely silly in the strictest sense of the word. Every law serves a purpose, it's just a matter of whether that purpose is truly applicable anymore (segregation laws anyone?). As it stands, copyright laws are not going away anytime soon and thanks to entities like Sonny Bono and Disney, these laws are only becoming more strict. I asked you to show the hobby and market some respect in the sense that we all know the issues surrounding copyrights on ROMS and we all know what we're doing (at least we think we do). Arguing about the application of copyrights doesn't do anyone a lick of good. Do yourself and everyone else a favor and read up on copyright laws with a neutral mind. Understand that this is the way it is. Any preconceived notions you may have about copyright laws just makes you look like an ass and taints any possibility of understanding all of this. I can't vouch for everyone here, but I don't necessarily agree with copyrights 100%, especially with the recent extensions and the constant prosecution from the MPAA/RIAA to force us to stick with an archaic business model. The difference is understanding how things are, accept that it's the reality of the situation, and if you don't like it, actively work to change that. And no, out and out violating someone's copyright is probably not the best way to go about it. |
| nitz:
--- Quote from: Driver-Man on September 10, 2010, 04:43:33 am --- --- Quote --- ...kindly advising you to drop this topic as you're likely going to just upset a lot of folks here if you keep pursuing it. --- End quote --- --- Quote ---Try not to be an jerk trying to justify something we all know to be true anyways. Show the hobby and market some respect. --- End quote --- Errr, ok, I hear you, but I have no idea what are you referring to. What are you two talking about, please? I see people on this forum openly saying to have thousands of ROMs, so that's not it, and at least I paid for my illegal machines, but that only makes me stupid... what else? I kind of see where and how our view on the subject can differ, but I do not see there can be any disrespect to anyone. I'm sort of "MAME developer" myself, if that matters at all, but all the same I have nothing but respect for MAME and how it came to be, for all the people that contributed, and so on... Interestingly though I was also responsible for couple of published Amstrad CPC games. I speak not only for myself, but many actual programmers when I say I would like my games to be played freely. I don't even know whether they are or not, it was never up to me anyway. I made those games so everyone can play it, that was my motivation and satisfaction, and I find it unfortunate that some lost copyrights stand between people and my games, that's not fair to me - the actual maker, the actual programmer, not the bloody company that would have my games buried in their ignorance. Games are meant to be played, and that's the most important thing here, not silly laws that would have them forgotten. Where do we disagree, exactly? --- End quote --- I was just referring to talk about selling mame and roms. That's all. It's totally cool to talk about mame and roms here of course, but not selling them or where to find roms. We disagree on what you're saying about the copyrights on these games and the legality of selling them. Saying the copyrights are no longer valid, or that it's legal to sell mame and roms you don't own, well, that's simply not true. It's not something we all have differing opinions on or anything - it's a fact and you really can't argue about it without looking silly. --- Quote from: WhereEaglesDare on September 10, 2010, 08:45:16 am ---Hey, you're right! That's all abadonware, you should totally sell homemade cabs with mame and 200 games on them! Make sure you put Ads up EVERYWHERE. eBay, Craigslist, Classifieds, street poles, everywhere. Oh and you got to make sure you charge a ridiculous amount for what you didn't pay for. --- End quote --- Yeah, as soon as I posted that, I just knew someone would step up and prove me wrong! :lol |
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