ROM Legal Question

[RacerX135]

I would like to know that If I sold a mame cabinet with Mspac, Galaga and Pacman Roms installed  and I included with the cabinet a legal retail copy of Namco Museum for ps2 wich includes all those roms will it be legal to include those roms in the cabinet then.

Gary Pranzo

[x-wing]

No.  You must distribute the same version.  In other words, you can't buy an Atari 2600 Pac-Man cart and say you have legal rights to the Namco arcade version of Pac-Man.

This is why HanaHo has licensed the arcade versions of certain Capcom games and can sell them on their CD w/ a Hotrod.  This is also why they include their own MAME-lite (or whatever they call it) so the games can be played.  

Now that I think about it, isn't it against the MAME license to distribute roms with the emulator, regardless if you have legal rights to the roms?  

[RacerX135]

Namco museum has the same versions. 2600 has a very different version (as kids we sadly realized that.) Anyway I did not think about the distribution with mame rule. I have a few mame cabs I will probly put up on ebay and I will most likely not include roms in the cabinet but like to include a few legally.

Gary Pranzo
Media Impact

[x-wing]

My choice of the 2600 cart was a very poor example.

What I should of said was that unless it is a dump of the actual arcade pcb, it is not the same version and is covered under a different copyright.  Ownership of a psx cd does not constitute legal rights to the arcade roms of the same name.  Being Sony, I'm sure that there is some kind of Sony/Namco joint copyright or something on the psx disc.  Another way to tell that they aren't the same version is because the true arcade Pac-Man rom will not run on the psx without some kind of modification of either the psx or the rom itself.

You may try it, but be wary of your successful bidder.  If I purchased a "legal" version of an arcade rom and found out I bought a psx disc, I'd be a little ticked and most likely leave negative feedback.  But that's just me.  

[RacerX135]

Well if I was not concerned about doing it right I would have just listed the item and blew off any legal stuff. I have 172 Positives and no negatives so I will not sell a cab to you  

Seriously thanks for the info. I have read the MAME FAQ and you are right about rom distribution but if the roms are legal they can be with the emulator. But you have me convinced that including the PS2 disc does not make the roms legal so I will sell the cobinets with no roms.

I did hear thier were some roms that are public domain. If anyone reading can direct me to a link to those let me know.

Thanks again
Gary Pranzo
 

[jelloslug]

I think theres a link on mame.net for the legal roms.