Are the people of MAME aware of this?

[jfarfenuge]

I stumbled upon this website today. Just wondering if it's legal to sell an arcade cabinet and "provide you with over 4000 arcade games for free". Reading the FAQ, it sounds like they're giving away the ROMs for free but charging for MAME32.

Is this on the up and up?

[jfarfenuge]

Sorry. Forgot to include the url in my post. The website is:

http://www.modernarcades.com/index.html

[ArcadEd]

According to their faq

Q - Do these 1000's of arcade games you talk about come with my Modern Arcade Machine, am I buying them too?
A - When you purchase an Modern Arcade Machine from us, you are not purchasing the games; you are purchasing a unit designed to play the games.  We will, however, provide you with over 4000 arcade games for free that you can play on your new system

I'm not sure what exactly what the 4000 games they are giving you, but it doesn't sound like roms.  Either that, or they are using fancy talk to dance around it.

[BobA]

Here we go AGAIN

   BobA

[SirPoonga]

You can report it to the the mamedevs.
http://mamedev.com/contact.html

According to their faq

Q - Do these 1000's of arcade games you talk about come with my Modern Arcade Machine, am I buying them too?
A - When you purchase an Modern Arcade Machine from us, you are not purchasing the games; you are purchasing a unit designed to play the games. We will, however, provide you with over 4000 arcade games for free that you can play on your new system

I'm not sure what exactly what the 4000 games they are giving you, but it doesn't sound like roms. Either that, or they are using fancy talk to dance around it.

Actually, it does sound like they provide you with the roms if you read another FAQ question.

Heh, I like this in the faq, it is completely wrong.  Many people interpret the change to the DCMA this way.  If you READ the change it says circumventing any copyright protection on obsolete software is ok, this mean cracking the encryption and so forth.

Q - Is it legal to have all of these arcade games?
A - It is not legal to possess most newer arcade games that are readily available for purchase unless you have purchased them from the manufacturer, a retailer or obtained legal copies from us.  However, for all other games, on October 28, 2003, the Librarian of Congress, on the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, announced the classes of works subject to the exemption from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.  One of the four classes included in this exemption were computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.  Because of this exemption you can legally possess any arcade games which are no longer manufactured or are no longer reasonably available (for new purchase).  These exemptions apply to approximately 97% of all the arcade games our arcade systems are designed to play.  These exemptions will remain in effect through October 27, 2006.

[ArcadEd]

Wow, that's a whole lot of fancy talk.  LOL

[RayB]

We are only selling you the baggies! The crack is free, so that's not illegal is it? 

[arcadecollecting]

Of course that bit about the DCMA is total hooey. It applies only to circumventing copy protection (cracking), not selling copies of ROMs with your cabinet or on disk (violating copyright law).

[jcoleman]

They should really change that answer to "No."