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Question about legalities of Roms
pmlabrier:
I am considering building a MAME box for resale and have some questions about the legalities of roms.
I would like to provide more than freeware roms but I also do not want to lose everything I own to a lawsuit.
I realize that they can download anything they want after they buy it, but not everyone wants to or knows how to.
Technically you are supposed to own the ROM from the original arcade to be legit and for many classics these can be picked up pretty inexpensively off ebay.
What I am wondering is it legit if you own another version of the game other than the original rom. Say I provided new versions of Arcade Advanced , Namco Museum and MIDWAY GREATEST ARCADE HITS for the gameboy advanced. Would that let me put the games included in those collections onto the mame cabnet following the spirit of the law if not the letter? Would it at least give me a legitimate excuse?
Jjst trying to CMA,
Paul
maraxle:
--- Quote from: pmlabrier on October 04, 2004, 06:54:37 am ---What I am wondering is it legit if you own another version of the game other than the original rom. Say I provided new versions of Arcade Advanced , Namco Museum and MIDWAY GREATEST ARCADE HITS for the gameboy advanced. Would that let me put the games included in those collections onto the mame cabnet following the spirit of the law if not the letter? Would it at least give me a legitimate excuse?
--- End quote ---
Sorry, but no. Unless those GBA cartridges have the original ROMs on them, and you pull them from there, you're no better off than when you started.
whammoed:
You can get some legal roms here:
http://www.starroms.com/
However you would want to wait to purchase them until you have made the sale and purchase them in your buyers name...I believe they are non-transferable.
danny_galaga:
i've thought about this myself. although i cant imagine ever selling my machine, who knows? anyway, hypothetically you might ask the buyer for a delivery address ;) even if they are going to pick it up. then you could somehow suggest perhaps ;), mysteriously a cd of ROMS etc might appear in their mail before they pick up the machine ;) ;). if they had the feeling that miraculously a cd might turn up in the mail ;), they wouldnt have to worry about it ;)
damn, got something in my eye ;)
GGKoul:
Selling Mame roms goes against the Mame project.