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MAME machine legalities
Zebidee:
Discussing these legal points can be a bit like picking lint out of your navel. Pretty pointless in the end, and can leave you with a sore feeling in your guts if you do it too much.
This are several shades of grey about this evolving area of law, so one cannot talk in absolutes. I can say pretty confidently that noone really cares what we do with mame & roms as a hobby/personal use thing, so long as we aren't putting coin mechs on them and putting them at the local store. Once you start making a commercial enterprise out of it, the shades of grey start getting dark pretty quick.
There are many protections in place for consumers (in most mature jurisdictions), and who would the company sue? What would be the point? But once you move into commercialisation, different laws apply and you could find yourself sued by a company, just to affirm a legal right.
Don't forget that we as a community can play a role in how such laws develop, as our views and how we use the software etc. will ultimately have an influence on how we get treated legally. In case that sounds complicated, here is the simple version: Let's just be cool about it all, don't make too much fuss, and don't do anything overtly commercial to create a REASON for there to be a legal issue to contest. ;D
Green Giant:
I feel like you completely skipped over my post jim cause you had no arguments against it.
I will stand by it again and say mame is perfectly legal. The mame devs are not supporting the download of illegally dumped roms, therefore they have commited to crime in building an arcade emulator. The DMCA clearly protects them from attack by any lawyers. I am not standing up for modchips or anything that is current, but mame is perfectly legal, in the US.
Zebidee:
--- Quote from: pinballjim on September 11, 2007, 06:03:13 pm ---Babe in the woods.... :)
--- End quote ---
Please leave me out of your pre-teenage fantasies. :troll:
If I'm a babe in the wood then you ain't even a sparkle in your grand-daddy's eye.
Time to move on from this topic. I'm getting bored.
shardian:
--- Quote from: Green Giant on September 11, 2007, 06:34:19 pm --- The mame devs are not supporting the download of illegally dumped roms, therefore they have commited to crime in building an arcade emulator. The DMCA clearly protects them from attack by any lawyers. I am not standing up for modchips or anything that is current, but mame is perfectly legal, in the US.
--- End quote ---
Now I'm not pointing any fingers, but don't you think it is a bit coincidental that the MAME guys dumped all of the rom sets in order to make the games work in MAME, and there is also a complete set of roms available for download that matches that list. I mean, just pointing that out. ::)
Green Giant:
--- Quote from: shardian on September 12, 2007, 08:38:48 am ---
--- Quote from: Green Giant on September 11, 2007, 06:34:19 pm --- The mame devs are not supporting the download of illegally dumped roms, therefore they have commited to crime in building an arcade emulator. The DMCA clearly protects them from attack by any lawyers. I am not standing up for modchips or anything that is current, but mame is perfectly legal, in the US.
--- End quote ---
Now I'm pointing any fingers, but don't you think it is a bit coincidental that the MAME guys dumped all of the rom sets in order to make the games work in MAME, and there is also a complete set of roms available for download that matches that list. I mean, just pointing that out. ::)
--- End quote ---
Even thats pretty sketchy for bringing any fines against them. The law states that the product must be readily available for purchase, and ebay does not count as readily available. If every old company was to start producing new cabs with the classic games in them, then there would be legal complications.
Also, just because an emulator has the ability to play illegaly dumped roms doesn't make it illegal as long as it can also do legal things. Another portion of the law states that if there are perfectly legal roms, the ones the mame devs have on their site, then the software to play them is legal since it can be used in a perfectly legal manner. This is the main argument protecting the xbox modchip scene since there is an all original linux bios that does not break microsoft copyrighted games.
It might seem coincidental to any normal civilian, but in the eyes of the court that does not matter, they are obeying all current laws.