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What constitutes a valid rom license?
Chris:
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on May 18, 2004, 02:49:10 pm ---About the capcom roms collection..... If you use the emulator and software package they come with then yes, you can legally play them. Unfortunately afaik you still don't have the legal right to play them on mame due to the unique liscense agreement and the fact that the roms are saved in a proprietary format. (Again reverse engineering)
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Is there more than one Capcom collection? I have one from HanaHo and was able to copy the ROMs right to my cabinet. Exed Exes didn't work, but I think that's because the ROM changed.
--Chris
bigmoe:
Here is one thing I have always wondered:
Given a lot of the MAME Roms are parentless. Are those the ones we really play or that really brought us into this hobby? For most of us, probably not.
Why haven't Namco or Midway (or Nintendo or whoever owns the Williams stuff now) shut MAME down? Or at least the ROM burners? These companies are viable video-game software companies with on-staff lawyers. Since they are marketing arcade repros to console buyers, they have a directly competing product whose sales are almost certainly hurt by MAME use. Especially if it was a legal slam-dunk, why aren't they doing anything about it?
Chris:
--- Quote from: bigmoe on May 18, 2004, 03:07:10 pm ---Why haven't Namco or Midway (or Nintendo or whoever owns the Williams stuff now) shut MAME down? Or at least the ROM burners? These companies are viable video-game software companies with on-staff lawyers. Since they are marketing arcade repros to console buyers, they have a directly competing product whose sales are almost certainly hurt by MAME use. Especially if it was a legal slam-dunk, why aren't they doing anything about it?
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Good question. The most likely answer is that they have nothing to gain from it other than a PR black eye. (If Napster/P2P users only dealt in old Benny Goodman and Glen Miller songs, the RIAA wouldn't be making like a ten-ton armored fist.) That's why the MAME team pays attention when IT says "Please don't emulate Golden Tee" or SNK asks us to lay off KOF 2001. The companies obviously have taken notice but aren't squashing us as long as we play nice with them. After all, we're not going to run out and buy a brand-new Pac-Man machine from them if we lose our ROM... if MAME machines start showing up on location, though, and cut into sales of 20th Anniversary machines, the MAME scene will be a smoking crater faster than you can say "Injunction".
mlcampbe:
Ok, I'm the original author of the question and I have to say that I agree with Howard_Casto's dissertation above. I just wanted to see if I was missing anything in my interpretation.
However, I guess my real question behind the scenes would have been what happens if I download some classic ROM's from the internet and start playing them. If I am using them strictly for personal use at home (ie: not making money on it) it's still illegal but what are the chances that anyone is going to care? Are lawyers going to start showing up at the door?
DaveMMR:
Also keep in mind (the way I see it) that MAME isn't a household word the way Napster was. 24 year old Pac Man can still sell copies to the old school gamers who either never really heard of MAME or are not computer savvy. If Namco (or whomever) decided to sue, it could make MAME popular enough to start cutting into their bottom line.