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cant seem to grasp why mame is 'illegal' for commercial use
Haze:
--- Quote from: J.Max on February 03, 2010, 01:15:46 pm ---
--- Quote from: Blanka on February 03, 2010, 12:57:15 pm ---
--- Quote from: Haze on February 03, 2010, 08:02:47 am ---The license says that you can't use MAME in a commercial way, and by downloading / using MAME you are agreeing to this license
--- End quote ---
Guess that is a EULA. And as far as I know, nobody has ever been sued with succes over violating a EULA in Europe. Just because judges work on reasonability, and reading a EULA is definitely not a common thing to do.
--- End quote ---
It's really, really complicated in the US, but the GNU Public License has been enforced in court many, many times in the US and Europe.
MySQL AB v. Progress NuSphere (2002, US)
netfilters/iptables v. Sitecom Germany (2004, this was in Germany)
gpl-violations.org vs. D-Link (2005, also in Germany)
Free Software Foundation v Cisco Inc (2007, US)
--- End quote ---
Yeah, the MAME license is derived from the BSD license, but with a non-commercial clause. It should be on sound legal ground.
J.Max:
--- Quote from: Haze on February 03, 2010, 01:22:25 pm ---
--- Quote from: J.Max on February 03, 2010, 01:15:46 pm ---
--- Quote from: Blanka on February 03, 2010, 12:57:15 pm ---
--- Quote from: Haze on February 03, 2010, 08:02:47 am ---The license says that you can't use MAME in a commercial way, and by downloading / using MAME you are agreeing to this license
--- End quote ---
Guess that is a EULA. And as far as I know, nobody has ever been sued with succes over violating a EULA in Europe. Just because judges work on reasonability, and reading a EULA is definitely not a common thing to do.
--- End quote ---
It's really, really complicated in the US, but the GNU Public License has been enforced in court many, many times in the US and Europe.
MySQL AB v. Progress NuSphere (2002, US)
netfilters/iptables v. Sitecom Germany (2004, this was in Germany)
gpl-violations.org vs. D-Link (2005, also in Germany)
Free Software Foundation v Cisco Inc (2007, US)
--- End quote ---
Yeah, the MAME license is derived from the BSD license, but with a non-commercial clause. It should be on sound legal ground.
--- End quote ---
Plenty strong. What I can't grasp is why people think that MAMEDev hasn't done their homework in regards to the law. It is a very large project, it's been going on for 15 years, and it's already been through one legal challenge. MAME is a far cry from being one guy coding in his basement or something...and even the ones that are one guy in a garage know to use a software license.
ark_ader:
--- Quote from: Haze on February 03, 2010, 12:29:39 pm ---
--- Quote from: J.Max on February 03, 2010, 12:16:02 pm ---Nah, he has no legal interest in doing so. It would be dismissed immediately. You can't just sue to sue.
--- End quote ---
he could attempt to stir up some interest in doing so if he really wanted, much as people did with Ultracade once it was revealed that some of their stuff wasn't licensed. For all I know he could have been trolling on behalf of a company anyway.
--- End quote ---
That was not my intention I am researching for my college assignment.
Associating me with Foley was a bit much. I thought you were losing it there. ::)
The assignment is based on reverse software engineering and its commercial impacts.
I was asking probing questions and collecting information.
Sometimes being combative assists research, thus my persistant tone. I was lucky I got an Ex Mame Dev Cor-ordinator and I zeroed in.
Aaron does not respond to my emails.
Very close to what Haze was suggesting though.
It did not occur to me to contact Haze directly.
Lesson learned.
Haze:
--- Quote from: ark_ader on February 03, 2010, 02:03:29 pm ---
--- Quote from: Haze on February 03, 2010, 12:29:39 pm ---
--- Quote from: J.Max on February 03, 2010, 12:16:02 pm ---Nah, he has no legal interest in doing so. It would be dismissed immediately. You can't just sue to sue.
--- End quote ---
he could attempt to stir up some interest in doing so if he really wanted, much as people did with Ultracade once it was revealed that some of their stuff wasn't licensed. For all I know he could have been trolling on behalf of a company anyway.
--- End quote ---
That was not my intention I am researching for my college assignment.
Associating me with Foley was a bit much. I thought you were losing it there. ::)
The assignment is based on reverse software engineering and its commercial impacts.
I was asking probing questions and collecting information.
Sometimes being combative assists research, thus my persistant tone. I was lucky I got an Ex Mame Dev Cor-ordinator and I zeroed in.
Aaron does not respond to my emails.
--- End quote ---
Aaron.. yeah, he often doesn't respond. I still think he's a pretty useless co-ordinator as he won't put his foot down on issues and prefers to take the easy route out when problems arise, but that's just my opinion. Nobody seems to want to cross him for the risk of getting kicked off the team, as I was in the end. Good luck with your project, as with any it's important to look at all sides, and dig deeper than your initial thoughts and opinions.
I still contribute to the project because I think it's a worthwhile cause, and will eventually be valued by all, even if I have issues with the people involed right now. Once MESS get their s**t sorted out (which is happening) I think that can play the same role for Consoles and to a lesser degree (because it's a significantly harder task) Computers.
FrizzleFried:
...alright Ark Foley... what's your endgame?
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