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cant seem to grasp why mame is 'illegal' for commercial use
Ginsu Victim:
--- Quote from: jcterzin on February 02, 2010, 10:39:56 pm ---what about RAINE? its freeware and says the original author abandoned it and released the source code. If I reconfigure RAINE, could anyone see legal issues with that?
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Centipede isn't emulated in Raine, first off. Second, it would still be a coin-op machine without a tax stamp (running pirated software, no less).
CheffoJeffo:
So long as you have no compunction with the legality/morality -- the smart idea is to trade those two classics for a 60-in-1 and some cash. -- you get what you want, pick up some cash and you avoid doing something really offensive.
--- Quote from: BYOAC FAQ ---Please do be mindful that we don't destroy what we're trying to re-create. Many classic arcade machines are rare and worth a heck of a lot more intact than altered. Ideal candidates for this type of project are machines that have already been abused by previous owners - artwork destroyed, poorly converted, etc... If you have a classic cabinet in good shape, you can probably sell it to a collector and get a trashed but usable cabinet in the bargain.
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saint:
The legal issue is the ROMs. You have no legal right to use the ROMs in a commercial setting, and frankly unless you've purchased the ROMs no legal right to use it in a personal setting.
Malenko:
--- Quote from: saint on February 02, 2010, 10:56:04 pm ---The legal issue is the ROMs. You have no legal right to use the ROMs in a commercial setting, and frankly unless you've purchased the ROMs no legal right to use it in a personal setting.
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well its a two fold issue. Legally speaking I have the ROMs and HDs (and actual dedicated cabs to boot) to both Killer Instinct 1 and Killer Instinct 2 so I can use them in a commercial enviroment with the proper permits and what not. So long as I have the permits and the PCBs are in there its legal. Now if I pull out a PCB and pop a PC running MAME and just running the KI or KI2 game its illegal , (pretend I dumped the ROMs myself or had Hobbyroms.com dump them for me , for argument's sake) the roms have nothing to do with the legality because the MAME license trumps that. Running an Xin1 board is just illegal in so many ways, from the ROMs on it, to the fact it in itself is a violation of the MAME license,etc,etc
RAINE is actually a good point to make. If you have the actual PCBs/ROMs to a game RAINE runs, and you only run that game in the cab AND you have the permits to have the machine in a commercial setting....is it legal? I cant say I ever read the RAINE license, but if the author says no commerical use , then it puts it in the same threshold as MAME.
SavannahLion:
--- Quote from: Malenko on February 02, 2010, 11:57:41 pm --- , (pretend I dumped the ROMs myself or had Hobbyroms.com dump them for me , for argument's sake) the roms have nothing to do with the legality because the MAME license trumps that.
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--- Quote from: Malenko on February 02, 2010, 11:57:41 pm ---Now if I pull out a PCB and pop a PC running MAME and just running the KI or KI2 game its illegal , (pretend I dumped the ROMs myself or had Hobbyroms.com dump them for me , for argument's sake) the roms have nothing to do with the legality because the MAME license trumps that.
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The rights of the ROMs (or more accurately the copyright holder) play a more significant role than you're really implying here.
No, the MAME license does not trump the ROM copyrights. Even if a team of developers get together and create a MAME-run-alike that has absolutely no license, or if MAMEDev suddenly decide to release a commercial version of MAME, it doesn't change the legal status of the ROMs in question in any shape or form. The legal status of ROMS is fairly well established through various court cases over the past twenty plus years. No amount of file sharing, trading, dumping, or pseudo-legal mumbo jumbo bull ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- about keeping ROMs for 24 hours before deleting is going to fly in any court (note, I'm in the U.S.).
(not really directed at Malenko specifically)
What it is is that it's really a legal minefield. In no particular order. You have the MAME license that specifically restricts a commercial setting. Then you have the copyright owners of the specific games in question (let's assume that all of the games in question are currently owned by someone, somewhere) to contend with. Newer games have additional DMCA protection (as annoying as it is, it is what it is). Then you have local city, county or state ordinances governing the cabinets themselves. Tax stickers aren't just randomly stuck on cabs to be scrapped of by collectors you know. They're there for a reason.
Seriously, why is the legal status of anything we do here even debated, ever? It strikes me that too many people confuse the reality of the situation with its legal situation then go around arguing the reality as an example of the law.
(I'm rambling, you can stop reading here)
In the U.S. (and Mexico) marijuana is illegal. Period. As far as the federal government of either country is concerned, it's generally not open to interpretation. It's legal in CA for medicinal mj, but it's still illegal under federal law. How stupid does one have to be not to realize this potentially important note and not to realize the potential consequence of it? I spent two weeks getting hounded by some lawyer because some dumb ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- thought his CA medicinal mj license would be valid in Mexico. Now the stupid ass is rotting in a jail because he failed to recognize the law. The drug situation in Mexico probably isn't all that different than the U.S., but that still doesn't change the fact that if you get caught by federal agents, they'll toss your ass in jail.