I asked him about the MAME trademark move, the demand for royalties from marquee printers, and more. He never adequately answered my questions about the infringement of the MAME logo, but I can see at least where his grab for the MAME phrase could be considered legal (not ethical, but perhaps legal), since it was not being used commercially.
Unethical, and borderline legal, since any art created is auto-copyrighted. Disgusting!
I asked him about the demands of royalties: he explained that his requests for royalties were for the use of the characters and artwork that he has obtained an exclusive license for (at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars). Seemed fair enough.
But the MAME art was what he was seeking royalties. It is the job of the art owners, not Foley, to go after infringers. He never said once to Emdkay that he was trying to collect royalties on things that he was paying royalties on. Infact, just because HE licensed them, doesn't mean he is allowed to collect royalties. The only royalties are paid to the original owners.
I also stand by what I said in my editorial: MAME has gotten too popular to survive as it is now, and we are going to have to adapt or be sued out of existence. It doesn't even matter who is right and who is wrong: no one involved in the project can survive a corporate lawsuit of any kind (none of the companies or MAMEdevs are rolling in cash, I'm certain).
This just isn't true. Look at Bleem! for example. Sony sued them, and lost. Precedent means a lot in the justice system. Second of all, MAME is done to some degree. The source is out there; the damage is done. New updates make minor improvements to the old favourites here and there. However, the majority of updates are for obsecure titles. Nothing will destroy the MAME that is here and now. Illegal roms are readily available. Its so simple, a child can do it, and lets face it, does on a normal basis. That distribution system isn't going anywhere.
Finally, there isn't a single ounce of information on BYOAC to lead people to find illegal roms. And as long as Saint keeps us on the right side of the law, we are protected.
I've asked him about the status of his announced i-ROMs service, but David Foley's continued silence about it is also a red flag for me. I want legal ROMs to be available - it's the only way MAME will appear legitimate in the eyes of the industry and the only way we can avoid further legal entaglements.
Corporations are not warm and fuzzy entities... If they decide to go after mame, they will. They won't care much for the legitimate ways to get roms. Remember when they went after the designer of MP3s because napster made it possible to easily pirate? They didn't care about the few legal services that existed at the time.
Anyway, I hope this helps explain my position. I realize not everyone will agree, and that's fine. Just don't go chalking my position up to some sort of greasy sellout...
I hope you realize that I don't consider you a sellout, I just feel that Foley was trying to pull another fast one on you. It seemed that he succeeded with his brand of circular logic. I'd rather you not support him, as a review, good or bad, is free advertisement for a product.