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"MAMEdev are *aggressively* trying to move to a commercial license" What???

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BadMouth:
Haze, can you comment on who it is that wants to license MAME for commercial use?

Haze:

--- Quote from: BadMouth on October 15, 2013, 08:56:02 pm ---Haze, can you comment on who it is that wants to license MAME for commercial use?

--- End quote ---

The main people pushing for this change are Micko (current project coordinator), Aaron Giles, and R.Belmont.

So not exactly easy people to oppose.

I know there are a fair number of people here who want to be able to sell MAME or use MAME in commercial environments, so my opposition to this probably isn't going to be the most popular here, so I apologise, but it is one of the principal reasons I've contributed over the yeras.

BadMouth:

--- Quote from: Haze on October 15, 2013, 08:59:35 pm ---
--- Quote from: BadMouth on October 15, 2013, 08:56:02 pm ---Haze, can you comment on who it is that wants to license MAME for commercial use?

--- End quote ---

The main people pushing for this change are Micko (current project coordinator), Aaron Giles, and R.Belmont.

So not exactly easy people to oppose.

I know there are a fair number of people here who want to be able to sell MAME or use MAME in commercial environments, so my opposition to this probably isn't going to be the most popular here, so I apologise, but it is one of the principal reasons I've contributed over the yeras.

--- End quote ---

I was asking about outside influences.  Have they already been talking to someone who wants to license it?  Are licensees waiting in the wings?

404:

--- Quote from: WakiMiko on October 15, 2013, 06:33:55 pm ---
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 ---

--- End quote ---

saying its merely BSD with no commercial attributes is a little bit of a misnomer. BSD is specifically tailored towards business and what are generally called proprietary offsets or forks which do not disclose source.

Regardless, many projects haven't fared all that well when they have change licenses. Especially in terms of the amount of contributors that leave projects when stricter licenses are adopted.

Personally, I think its a bad idea to change licenses mid-project. At the same time, I've always felt that mame should have always been licensed under a more open license.  On the other side of that token (no pun intended), mame has garnered some attention by both fans and contributors for its unique license.

Haze:

--- Quote from: BadMouth on October 15, 2013, 09:14:59 pm ---
--- Quote from: Haze on October 15, 2013, 08:59:35 pm ---
--- Quote from: BadMouth on October 15, 2013, 08:56:02 pm ---Haze, can you comment on who it is that wants to license MAME for commercial use?

--- End quote ---

The main people pushing for this change are Micko (current project coordinator), Aaron Giles, and R.Belmont.

So not exactly easy people to oppose.

I know there are a fair number of people here who want to be able to sell MAME or use MAME in commercial environments, so my opposition to this probably isn't going to be the most popular here, so I apologise, but it is one of the principal reasons I've contributed over the yeras.

--- End quote ---

I was asking about outside influences.  Have they already been talking to someone who wants to license it?  Are licensees waiting in the wings?

--- End quote ---

Well if you read what has been said, it's pressure from some academics who claim they can't use MAME in museums right now because of the non-commercial clause.

However there are better ways around that than trying to force open the whole project for any commercial use at all.

I would certainly have agreed to add additional exemptions in the licenses on anything I've contributed to cover THAT use, but it's a world apart from people trying to change the license to allow commercial use anywhere.

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