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Is there a living to be made from arcade cabs?

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Gambit:
So its illegal to make money from the chinese boards with mame on them, but is it ok to put them into your mame cabinet for use at home?

Seems like if they do cost just $70 its better than using a $450+ PC. We could burn our legal roms onto the flash or harddrive or whatever it uses.

This may have been answered already in this thread, just too much to read.

saint:
This argument surfaces every so often on the forums here, and I don't believe it's ever been post-helled. Discussion on the morality or legality of ROMs is not a violation of the rules (just don't give out ROM links, or hints and nudges to the same.


--- Quote from: RayB on September 19, 2006, 09:45:06 am ---What a great thread! 

There's some truth to some of what Spacies has to say. We just don't want to hear it. In my opinion, there is much hypocrisy on all sides of the argument.

I hope this thread doesn't end up in Post Hell.


--- End quote ---

horseboy:

--- Quote from: Gambit on September 19, 2006, 04:02:57 pm ---So its illegal to make money from the chinese boards with mame on them, but is it ok to put them into your mame cabinet for use at home?

--- End quote ---
No, both are illegal. An argument can be made though, that it is worse to make money off of them than use them yourself. It is kind of like arguing that it is worse to sell weed than to have a little personal stash to smoke.

Chris:

--- Quote from: Gambit on September 19, 2006, 04:02:57 pm ---So its illegal to make money from the chinese boards with mame on them, but is it ok to put them into your mame cabinet for use at home?

--- End quote ---
Yes, it is illegal on several levels:

- It is a violation of the MAME license to do so.  This is equivalent, say, to a PC seller selling an OEM version of Windows without the required hardware in violation of Microsoft's license.  The fact that the MAMEDevs don't have the resources to hunt down the perpetrators is not a defense.

- As noted, these boards also have (most likely) unlicensed versions of Microsoft Windows on them.  This is equivalent to any PC seller using bootlegged copies of Windows acquired from the grey market; the fact that someone else started the piracy doesn't absolve the seller.

- I won't even touch on the ROM issue, which is the crux of your argument, but the boards would be illegal based on the above two reasons even if no ROMs were involved.

Yes, it is illegal to use the ROMs at home as well, but there is usually a severe difference in penalties between personal copyright violation and commercial copyright violation, at least in the US.  

spacies:

Yes I am yanking your chain. And wipe the froth from your keyboard as it not a good look.

I have never bought a 10,200,400 or 800 in 1 PCB. The one we Ghosted was a friends. I would never use one either because they are known to be unreliable. Its a PC and we all know how unreliable they can be!

Horseboy: Please don't insult people by calling the names. God only knows how you thought up your name?

Saint: Do what you will my friend. I sincerely apologize for my comments. I got a little keyboard happy as did the others. I was stating what was out there and we all got defensive and offensive. If you blacklist me its my fault for speaking from the dark side. I don't fully condone the use of roms but the temtation is too great for all, well most, of us. I DO NOT build MAME machines anymore and the machines I am building are all dedicated, but, are new PCBs. Go figure.

You have a great asset here to preserve the history of arcade machines. This was THE main reason for starting the business. I dont make a lot of money, in fact I just get by but its something I have a skill in doing and I really flippin enjoy it.

I am not here for trouble. I have vast knowledge of games, I build all my machines from scratch myself and I also restore dedicated ones. I am here to help others in there quest to building and owning there own arcade machine. Also to offer tips and tricks I find along the way. So if I post on your thread when looking for advice or help, please remember the good guy inside that has the some hobby as you.

Apologies again,

Malcolm.

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