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Crazy Cooter:
The BLEEM! emulator went through court (vs. Sony) and it was determined that emus are legal.


--- Quote from: KenToad on June 06, 2005, 01:17:53 pm ---Everyone who supports Mame (TM) quakes in their boots now whenever the program is used commercially and they reject additions that make the emulator function more easily in a commercial setting.

--- End quote ---

MAME isn't intended to be used commercially.  Honestly, it isn't intended to be used in a cabinet that has a full ROM set either.  If it is used in a commercial environment, whoever does it is really opening themselves to some serious legal liability.  If commercial use is encouraged (through a FE that "manages" credits for example), it will raise flags for Capcom, Namco, Nintendo & the rest.  They won't aim for the emulator (MAME), they'll aim for the end user, the FE authors, and the rest of the people who make it easy to use MAME commercially.  Legally, MAME is legit.  But are the FE's?  Are the ROM Burners?  Are the sites that off the ROM's?  Are the ROM's on your machine?  Probably not because they aren't necessary to troubleshoot/archive/restore a pcb board.  So who is going to be brought into court?  The easy kills or the tough battle?
Chris:

--- Quote from: Crazy Cooter on June 06, 2005, 01:43:35 pm ---The BLEEM! emulator went through court (vs. Sony) and it was determined that emus are legal.

--- End quote ---
It's possible, though, that some or all of the encryption-breaking stuff in MAME is illegal.
KenToad:

--- Quote from: Crazy Cooter on June 06, 2005, 01:43:35 pm ---The BLEEM! emulator went through court (vs. Sony) and it was determined that emus are legal.


--- Quote from: KenToad on June 06, 2005, 01:17:53 pm ---Everyone who supports Mame (TM) quakes in their boots now whenever the program is used commercially and they reject additions that make the emulator function more easily in a commercial setting.

--- End quote ---

MAME isn't intended to be used commercially.  Honestly, it isn't intended to be used in a cabinet that has a full ROM set either.  If it is used in a commercial environment, whoever does it is really opening themselves to some serious legal liability.  If commercial use is encouraged (through a FE that "manages" credits for example), it will raise flags for Capcom, Namco, Nintendo & the rest.  They won't aim for the emulator (MAME), they'll aim for the end user, the FE authors, and the rest of the people who make it easy to use MAME commercially.  Legally, MAME is legit.  But are the FE's?  Are the ROM Burners?  Are the sites that off the ROM's?  Are the ROM's on your machine?  Probably not because they aren't necessary to troubleshoot/archive/restore a pcb board.  So who is going to be brought into court?  The easy kills or the tough battle?

--- End quote ---

Yeah, that makes sense to me, but, if you're arguing that this guy shouldn't sell Mame related merchandise and that guy shouldn't make an FE that passes coin count, how does that relate to Mame and the posterity issue raised by Haze?

KenToad
Tiger-Heli:

--- Quote from: KenToad on June 06, 2005, 01:17:53 pm ---What have the legal challenges consisted of so far and why are MameDevs and others so fearful of the project for posterity being threatened if the project has already been legally tested? 

--- End quote ---
I think MAME is on solid ground as far as the ability to simulate hardware in different software environments.

If anything MAME is on shaky ground on the "inducement to infringe" area.

See Patent Doc's comments earlier in the thread, here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,37734.msg336870.html#msg336870
Tiger-Heli:

--- Quote from: KenToad on June 06, 2005, 02:03:15 pm ---Yeah, that makes sense to me, but, if you're arguing that this guy shouldn't sell Mame related merchandise and that guy shouldn't make an FE that passes coin count, how does that relate to Mame and the posterity issue raised by Haze?

--- End quote ---
Okay - look at this (fairly possible) scenario.

Guy makes FE that passes coin count.

Arcade operators build arcade emulator cabs using MAME and the new FE.

Namco sues arcade operators, FE author and MAME dev team b/c their Reunion game sales are sliding due to everyone using cheaper arcade emulator cabs with MAME and new FE.

MAME is found to infringe on NAMCO's rights (probably under the clause above) and all work on the project is ordered ceased.

Obscure bootleg board that Haze or Rb or other MAMEdev's were working on will never legally be decoded and documented, so posterity loses out.

Got it?
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