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"MAMEdev are *aggressively* trying to move to a commercial license" What???
SavannahLion:
It smells like someone is waving a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- load of cash in front of those guys but in order to take it those guys need to change the license. Or maybe they finally have access to something that requires an NDA? Not even sure if the BSD license allows it. Might be a good idea to make copies of the source for that inevitable fork.
But I digrezz. Haven't the MAME guys allowed MAME to appear in commercial products before? Some sort of compilation disc for the PS1 or those Taco Bell promo discs? I remember reading about it somewhere.
BadMouth:
Ignoring the issue of using someone's code without their permission, I'm curious who the people doing the "coercing" to use it commercially are.
Owners of the rights to the original games, or someone else who sees potential to profit while ignoring the original IP owners?
Also, who do we pay to permanently fix the damn shifter toggle hack they add to all the racing games?
404:
--- Quote from: WindDrake on October 15, 2013, 03:34:48 pm ---Hopefully they just fork it from it's current codebase and continue on under a different name, taking control away from Overlord Giles and his circlejerk.
--- End quote ---
I haven't read the legal logistics of the mame license just yet but i don't know how anyone could make a fork at this point without being at the mercy of the original code owners. After all, Mame's license still gives full copyrights to each contributor.
this is just my opinion but in the end the license has come back to bite both sides of the debate in the rear.
--- Quote from: SavannahLion on October 15, 2013, 03:55:11 pm ---But I digrezz. Haven't the MAME guys allowed MAME to appear in commercial products before? Some sort of compilation disc for the PS1 or those Taco Bell promo discs? I remember reading about it somewhere.
--- End quote ---
Yes and no.
From what i gather, its a matter of some mame devs using their code (remember, all code contributions still are owned by the respective coder) and they simply used their code which is their copyright for commercial projects.
paigeoliver:
The sheer fact that the mamedev are trying to move to a commercial license shows that the existing license is meaningless and unenforceable. The text of their own license doesn't allow any of the existing code to be used in that way. So if they can ignore it so can anyone else.
Oh wait, they already do and have been doing so for years.
You can buy dozens commercial products that run mame right now.
The single largest selling arcade PCB of all time runs mame. Not only did mamedev not stop them, but neither did the owners of any of the involved games they included. You can buy commercial products powered by mame on amazon.com right now.
Lord knows how much software out there is secretly powered by mame code. Lets say Sega wants to sell an arcade rerelease, they can spend a ton on development writing their own emulator from scratch or they can just compile mame into their project quietly. On the off chance one of the devs tried to sue them they could ruin them with a countersuit.
WakiMiko:
--- Quote from: 404 on October 15, 2013, 03:27:02 pm ---Personally I've never been a huge fan of the mame user license, IMO it's always been a complete joke filled with too many rules and double standards.
--- End quote ---
Too many rules? It's basically a BSD license + no commercial applications. It doesn't get much simpler than that.
--- Quote from: MAME License ---
* Redistributions may not be sold, nor may they be used in a commercial product or activity.
* Redistributions that are modified from the original source must include the complete source code, including the source code for all components used by a binary built from the modified sources. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
* Redistributions must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
--- End quote ---
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