4 ms·

> "MAME's source code has long been freely available, but it's never technically been open source. Instead it's been available under a modified BSID license tha

by Crito 11y ago

> "MAME's source code has long been freely available, but it's never technically been open source. Instead it's been available under a modified BSID license that prohibits, among other things, commercial use of the code." Sounds to me that it has long been open source, but not Free software.

detaro 11y ago
Yeah, a bit strange wording, but also the language the project uses, because their license wasn't recognized as open source by the Open Source Initiative.
gillianseed 11y ago
As I recall this was to prevent the use of MAME in commercial arcade settings, beyond this MAME has a policy where they will only emulate arcade games which haven't had commercial circulation for a number of years. Same goes for the sister project MESS (which has now merged with MAME) that is targeting consoles and computers.
- ekianjo 11y ago
  > beyond this MAME has a policy where they will only emulate arcade games which haven't had commercial circulation for a number of years. I wonder how strict they are on that aspect of things, because in Japan you still have a number of arcades with games from the 80s and 90s. Isnt that considered commercial circulation ? Note that such games actually run on some kind of emulators, too. No idea what they use, but they clearly do not use the original hardware anymore.
  - gillianseed 11y ago
    >I wonder how strict they are on that aspect of things, because in Japan you still have a number of arcades with games from the 80s and 90s. Isnt that considered commercial circulation ? By that logic you wouldn't be able to emulate anything, since there are certainly places where old machines are active (as in, coin-operated). I think the policy regarding emulation is something like 2-3 years after manufacturing of said arcade machines have ceased, but I think that is also on a case-by-case basis, as in sometimes they wait quite a bit longer, shoot'em ups from Cave comes to mind.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
"source available" and "open source" are not the same thing; it was neither open source nor free software, the definitions of both of which explicitly disallow restrictions on commercial use. And if you're suggesting that there's another meaning of "open source": that ship sailed a long time ago, and attempting to use that term for any other purpose can only lead to confusion.
- ekianjo 11y ago
  > "source available" and "open source" are not the same thing To be fair "open source" is a bastard wording in the first place. It was created by people who did not understand the Free Software movement and did not want to relate to RMS. The only true legal term is Free Software, Open Source is close to meaningless without a license attached to the term.
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    That's a little over the top. While it's true that Open Source was effectively company-friendly branding and marketing for Free Software (and rather effective at that), it still refers to the same software (modulo very nitpicky differences in definition), and Open Source has a clear definition.

by Crito 11y ago

detaro 11y ago

Yeah, a bit strange wording, but also the language the project uses, because their license wasn't recognized as open source by the Open Source Initiative.

gillianseed 11y ago

As I recall this was to prevent the use of MAME in commercial arcade settings, beyond this MAME has a policy where they will only emulate arcade games which haven't had commercial circulation for a number of years. Same goes for the sister project MESS (which has now merged with MAME) that is targeting consoles and computers.

ekianjo 11y ago
> beyond this MAME has a policy where they will only emulate arcade games which haven't had commercial circulation for a number of years. I wonder how strict they are on that aspect of things, because in Japan you still have a number of arcades with games from the 80s and 90s. Isnt that considered commercial circulation ? Note that such games actually run on some kind of emulators, too. No idea what they use, but they clearly do not use the original hardware anymore.
- gillianseed 11y ago
  >I wonder how strict they are on that aspect of things, because in Japan you still have a number of arcades with games from the 80s and 90s. Isnt that considered commercial circulation ? By that logic you wouldn't be able to emulate anything, since there are certainly places where old machines are active (as in, coin-operated). I think the policy regarding emulation is something like 2-3 years after manufacturing of said arcade machines have ceased, but I think that is also on a case-by-case basis, as in sometimes they wait quite a bit longer, shoot'em ups from Cave comes to mind.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

"source available" and "open source" are not the same thing; it was neither open source nor free software, the definitions of both of which explicitly disallow restrictions on commercial use. And if you're suggesting that there's another meaning of "open source": that ship sailed a long time ago, and attempting to use that term for any other purpose can only lead to confusion.

ekianjo 11y ago
> "source available" and "open source" are not the same thing To be fair "open source" is a bastard wording in the first place. It was created by people who did not understand the Free Software movement and did not want to relate to RMS. The only true legal term is Free Software, Open Source is close to meaningless without a license attached to the term.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  That's a little over the top. While it's true that Open Source was effectively company-friendly branding and marketing for Free Software (and rather effective at that), it still refers to the same software (modulo very nitpicky differences in definition), and Open Source has a clear definition.