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MAMEdev is Pulling Auctions!

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chukdotcom:

Can I sell a "Microsoft Office Cab" on ebay?  Build a cabinet that has a PC in it, and nothing but windows and Micosoft Office installed.

CheffoJeffo:


--- Quote from: Chris on June 02, 2005, 07:33:15 pm ---Well, here's a thought, Jeffo:  Ford is the trademark owner of Ford.  MAMEDev is the trademark applicant for mame.  Applicant.  Not trademark holder.  And for that trademark to stick, it has to be used in commerce. So MAME had better get commercial if they want the trademark to stick.

--- End quote ---

It is an interesting thought and a pretty darned good point (about the commerce aspect) ... now, I wonder how that would be possible, given the nature of the project ... any thoughts ?

Cheers.

saint:

Had to respond to this part -- I hope that in fact you never have seen an advertisement for a MAME DVD on this forum as I specifically have such things blocked. Occasionally they may crop up -- I believe that you ran into the same problem with MAME ROM collections popping up in Google ads as new vendors purchased ads? Right now I have 7 or so sites blocked from my Google Ads specifically for being MAME ROM vendors. As fast as someone makes me aware of them I block them. I don't know what more than that I can do other than give up the Google ads altogether.

The policies of this web site also do not allow posting of ebay links to ROM auctions, even for the purposes of complaining about them, so as to prevent purposeful or inadvertent advertizing of such.  This is plainly spelled out in the rules of the forum linked at the top.

Additionally, any request for locating ROMs that a mod finds or is made aware of is also deleted post-haste.

I take a hard line on this for two reasons -- 1 is to honor the wishes of the MAME-devs, but more importantly because I know they are illegal (StarROMs and other legal ROMs aside).

You also will almost never (perhaps in fact never) hear me refer to a cabinet as a "MAME-Cabinet" because to me they are two entirely unique, albeit related, hobbies. I love MAME, but my side of this hobby can exist without MAME altogether. Together they make a great combo, but they are indeed separate entities.

The last thing I ever want to see is anyone associate BYOAC with condoning illegal ROM distribution, when in fact I bend over backwards to make sure that's not so.

--- saint


--- Quote from: Haze on June 02, 2005, 05:36:16 pm ---to this.  I only have to look at the adverts on this forum and I see 'MAME ROM DVDs' for sale.  We spent a great deal of time and effort filtering these out over at mame.net but it seems the majority don't care to do so and such businesses, and adverts do pose a threat to ourselves and the integrity of the MAME name and project.
hat it already is.

--- End quote ---


19rjs99:

TITLE: Emulation cabinet for Multiple Arcade Machines

Don't use MAME... spell it out.

Enough said.

saint:

For what it's worth, my being taken aback about the ROM DVD ads aside, I concur that MAME-DEV is being prudent in doing something about the situation. I think the restriction of the use of the word MAME in describing the capabilities of a cabinet is probably stricter than necessary, but if it's my family that's at risk as a MAME developer I'd probably be taking similar steps.

--- saint



--- Quote from: Haze on June 02, 2005, 05:36:16 pm ---
--- Quote from: KevSteele on June 02, 2005, 05:13:45 pm ---While I definitely see your point, I do think MAMEdev have overstepped their rights a bit with the two restrictions I mentioned above (not using MAME in the title and only using MAME once in the description).

IANAL, but as long as they acknowlege your trademark, it seems that a vendor of a legal product should be able to mention that their product is compatible with MAME, even in the title of their auction, and even if they say it more than once. (I've never heard of either of these restrictions in fair use before).

I know it may feel like vendors are using you and the MAMEdev team for profit purposes, but there is a large community built up around your efforts, and to squash legal products that do no harm to the MAME effort is a bit excessive.

In addition, your "ebay sweep" killing all these auctions without any prior notice seems a bit harsh, as well.

I hope that you'll reconsider and revise those two restrictions.

Kevin

--- End quote ---

Well I had nothing to do with the writing of the list of restrictions, however they do seem reasonable to me.

Mentioning MAME once, fair enough, I've seen several spammy auctions with MAME plastered all over them, it gives a false impression that the product is something we endorse when in most cases its just spam (and we all hate spam..)

I believe there was prior notice as mamedev.com has been up a while, including the trademark rules, however I will acknowledge some people may not have been aware of it.

You talk about a large community, unfortunately a significant part of the community does not seem to have our best interests at heart.  If more effort was put in to shutting down those abusing the MAME name things may not have come to this.  I only have to look at the adverts on this forum and I see 'MAME ROM DVDs' for sale.  We spent a great deal of time and effort filtering these out over at mame.net but it seems the majority don't care to do so and such businesses, and adverts do pose a threat to ourselves and the integrity of the MAME name and project.

At the end of the day a bit of bad comes with every bit of good.  All the developers are human, and have lives to live, and we don't want to have to live in fear of legal action being taken because a community has turned MAME into seemingly nothing more (in the eyes of those higher up) than a large profit making market based around selling illegal products.  At that point the risk of working on MAME becomes too high.  Unfortunately many of the arcade cabinets being sold, or for which 'MAME' parts are being sold end up being used for commercial purposes, this is likewise a problem.

With that in mind we simply need to establish MAME for what it is, allowing the name to only be used for things which really are MAME (ie the actual emulator)

Please read Aaron's reply over at mame.net
http://www.mame.net/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/showpost.pl?Board=mamegeneral&Number=174573

Anyway, I hope you can understand our situation as developers and why we feel the need to protect the MAME name before the situation gets even more out of control that it already is.

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