A MAME rant and a question.

[dgame]

downloading roms is highly illegal.

Why is this now a 'thing' to repeat around here?  There are ROM sites, based in America, that instantly pop up on Google searches, that have been around over a decade.  Multiboards are sold by most BYOAC forum sponsors, and can be found openly on E-Bay, Amazon, New Egg, et al.

Are you people truly so sheltered that copyright infringement is "highly illegal?"  Who, exactly, has gone to jail over it?

And before you say Dave Foley - he was ultimately popped for contract fraud, and the other charges were a lot more involved than someone punching "pacman rom" into google.

 

It seems a lot of forums have adopted this mantra. Ohh we cant talk about teh r0mz because they are gonna shut the forum down if we do. Meanwhile the aforementioned sites instantly pop up on Google searches.
This is why I don't help people with MAME r0m questions anymore, unless it's a PM or something. I think if we were freer to even discuss teh r0mz then the OP would have gotten the needed information and probably not been scared off.

As much as we love MAME it doesn't do much without teh r0mz.

[Howard_Casto]

Well the fact that we are go strict about it imho has been what's kept the hobby safe.  I don't know of any US sites that host roms, unless you count ones that require a user/pass system and thus are a bit too much trouble for outsiders to check.  The names of the sites that do host mame sets proper aren't exactly shared openly.  I mean I just did a google search just out of curiosity and I sure wouldn't trust any of the sites that popped up to host accurate sets. 

I think some of you guys are a bit confused.  Just because you aren't caught doing something illegal doesn't make it any less illegal.  Jay-walking is a prime example.  In most small towns there's no way you'd ever get fined for Jay-walking.... I'll bet it's still illegal though. 

The point is this righteous indignation where people think they have the right to roms is way out of line.  I would be sad if VG companies cracked down on emulation tomorrow and all the rom sites were taken away from us.  At the same time though I'm fully aware that they have the right to do it.  So I'm thankful that it is fairly simple to get ahold of them and it ticks me off a little when people whine that they can't find the illegal software that they somehow feel entitled to.  It's one thing to ask.. it's quite another to demand.

[dkersten]

I think that brings up a good point that isn't often considered:  A lot of laws are in place just as much to protect people as to try to prevent something from happening, but unless a person needs the law to protect them, it isn't enforced.

Jaywalking is a great example.. if you jaywalk in most cases nobody is going to write you a ticket.  However if you jaywalk and end up causing an accident, then the jaywalking law gives the people who suffered a loss a means of getting justice.  Without it, you could argue right of way (which pedestrians are always granted against vehicles), and it makes it more difficult to sue for liability. 

Copyrights are the same way.  If the owner of the intellectual property is not being directly impacted by the copyright laws being broken, then nobody is going to press charges.  Yet at the same time if the owner of the rights to Donkey Kong started trying to sell brand new arcade cabinets with DK loaded up, and found a bunch of arcades were running Mame cabinets or 60-in-1 cabinets and weren't interested in buying because of that, then that person or company would be directly impacted and could use that law to protect them. 

While it could be argued that these laws are in place to discourage or prevent things, I think a good argument could be made that laws are not good at preventing anything and therefore truly only serve the purpose of allowing a means of recourse for those affected. 

Plus municipalities found that these laws can provide a strong source of revenue.  Jaywalking again is a great example.  The city is low on money, send your officers out to write tickets for jaywalking.  Probably not what the lawmakers ever intended but it is the reality.  Another reality is that people will pirate software as long as they are physically able to.  And they will probably never even receive as much as a warning for doing it.

[Howard_Casto]

Well yeah.  I never meant to imply that the current copyright laws are fair to the consumer or even practical, they are laws though.  Moral and legal justification are unfortunately on the opposite end of the table in a lot of cases these days. 

The point still stands though that roms are illegal and because of that fact, maybe, just maybe, that's why it's sometimes difficult for the average noob to get a decent set. 

To use another real world example, let's take pot.  I think you would be hard pressed to find a community where you don't have access to it.  It isn't particularly morally objectionable either... after all it's flat out legal in a couple of states now.  All that being said you really don't have any right complaining about the quality in your little town because it is an illegal substance and you have to take what you can get.  You can't expect vendors to open up on the sidewalk and hand you a catalog where the stuff is illegal.

It's an extreme example I know, but it's hard to put these digital issues into context sometimes. 

[BobA]

I love MAME as it is the basis of most of the projects that the users have built. (jukeboxes excluded).   To rant about your difficulties using MAME will probably get little or no sympathy here.  Member since 2002-02-26.

Does anyone smell a troll?