Main > Main Forum
MAME machine legalities
Havok:
Hey PinballJim,
How about some citations instead of vague erroneous statements?
:P
Oh, wait, here's one:
Sony vs. Connectix
Precedent: emulation is legal...
ids:
omgwtflol
imho, MAME itself is legal, they emulate CPU's, which nobody can argue as illegal, else the XBOX360 (non-Intel cpu) emulating old xbox (Intel cpu) would be illegal. etc, etc. They emulate other aspects etc. The decrypting of ROMs may be an issue with the millenium copyright biznit in the US, but thankfully, not all citizenz of planit earth live where Mr Bush makes life better for his corporate frendz at the great expense of the voter. This whole thread is getting old -- we can all download mame, nobody (fingers crossed) is trying to make money from it....
life carries on
I thank all the mame devs and dont much care bout the rest
RayB:
Mod chips are only illegal in the US and a handful of other countries who have lubed up and bent over to US pressure to conform to their laws.
PinballJ, a little educating for you:
A microchip does not contain a "software program". It contains millions of micro sized logic gates that control the flow of electrons (in other words, shifting around bits and bytes of data). The design for a microchip is PATENTED. A patent lasts for 20 years and then can be freely copied even for commercial purposes.
MAME is software that imitates the shifting of bits and bytes of specific microchips, according to a set of instructions. This is perfectly legal, as it falls under the patent category. As for the "set of instructions", this is the game's "software". Any software that is part of a game board's collection of chips falls into the category of either the ROM set or a BIOS (and yes those things are copyrighted). MAME does not distribute game ROMs and AFAIK they don't distribute BIOS files either.
Zebidee:
In the hobby world in which we operate, where making money is mostly limited to the non-copyrighted paraphenalia associated with arcade games (eg cabs, controllers & configuration), legality is not really an issue. I mean, who really cares?
What gets my goat (ie what goads me) though is how I self-impose restrictions on how I sell one of my cabs (designed for home use, no coin mech, no roms etc), but I constantly see 1000+ games PCBs in cabinets for sale on ebay with impunity.
In case you don't realise, these 39+, 400+ & 1000+ games PCBs are just hacked versions of mame into a stripped down & specialised PC. Mostly coming from short-lived companies in China. There is nothing "legal" about them, certainly no more so than mame. But they seem to get conveniently ignored. :angry:
Green Giant:
Pinballjim,
Clearly you believe everything people tell you. You are most likely trying but failing to use the DMCA. Before you try to speak of technology copyright infringement, make sure you read the law, not some stupid summary.
I spent the time to read the entire law and have an answer for you.
The DMCA states no software can circumvent copyrighted material, but it also gives several allowances to this law. If the copyrighted material, in this case the rom, is not readily available by the copyright owner, use of a program to bypass it, mame in this case, is perfectly legal.
Sony has attempted a law suit against emulators because there product is still making a profit. Nintendo hasn't seen profit from the original Donkey Kong roms in decades.
Now if you live somewhere other than the US, there might be laws saying mame is illegal.
Didn't you ever wonder why you can't find roms to play on mame for games still in bars, Golden Tee 2006?
From the immortal words of you.
--- Quote from: pinballjim on September 10, 2007, 08:19:28 pm ---Get a clue before you comment.
--- End quote ---