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Legal question regarding the sale of MAME Cabinets.
CheffoJeffo:
While I appreciate the enthusiasm and "where are the legal precedences" (precedents?), there is nothing new here. This has been discussed repeatedly.
* There already is a procedure for licensing MAME for distribution, so that is already settled.
* With the demise of StarROMS, I can't think of an existing channel for inexpensively obtaining ROMs to run on MAME legally (e.g. specfic licensing for those ROMs), other than RobbyRoto (doesn't mean that there isn't one, just that I am unaware of it). There are a number of PC-based ports of arcade games, though.
* People have been building and selling cabs and cab kits for quite a while. Looking at one-offs being sold on eBay is not representative of the market. Check out DreamArcades, Awesome Arcades, Quasicade, Dream Authentics, etc.
* A number of individuals here build and sell cabinets, with at least a couple making it a full-time job.
The issues are pretty clear, and, sadly, wishing that the obstacles didn't exist does not remove the obstacles.
If you can make it fly, then great. I'm not necessariy disagreeing with anything the OP says, but if you ask folks who have sold MAME-based cabs, I think that you will find it isn't as easy as building cabs for yourself (e.g. supporting your clients can be rather painful).
Good luck.
Cheers
sealslayer:
I really can't understand why companies just don't sell the roms in the first place. People are downloading roms from dozens of various sites across the world for free so they get zero income from those when they could be getting customers who would quite willingly pay for them, especially if they wanted to re-disttribute them.
What happened to starRoms? I only recently heard about them, checked the link to their site and it was dead.
Xam:
--- Quote from: sealslayer on November 27, 2006, 09:49:14 am ---I really can't understand why companies just don't sell the roms in the first place. People are downloading roms from dozens of various sites across the world for free so they get zero income from those when they could be getting customers who would quite willingly pay for them, especially if they wanted to re-disttribute them.
What happened to starRoms? I only recently heard about them, checked the link to their site and it was dead.
--- End quote ---
The problem with most of the games (especially the older ones) is...who owns them? Someone still owns the copyright, but it (copyright and ownership of it) has been traded and sold so may times that it is hard to find the rightful owner. While I agree it would be nice (and profitable) for companies to provide a legal avenue for the roms...it just is not going to happen any time soon. I know Nintendo is extremely protective of their copyrights...went so far as to send a cease and desist to my son for because of some of his Mario drawings.
Xam
ChadTower:
Build the machine, configure it, get it running. Sell it without the hard drive.
Problem solved.
javeryh:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on November 27, 2006, 11:33:17 am ---
Build the machine, configure it, get it running. Sell it without the hard drive.
Problem solved.
--- End quote ---
I agree. Set everything up and leave the ROM folder empty. The rest is self-explanatory for the buyer, I think.
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