5 ms·

It is good that they are changing the license for MAME/MESS so that the code is more free and open. They have to get permission of the original programmers and

It is good that they are changing the license for MAME/MESS so that the code is more free and open. They have to get permission of the original programmers and if not they have to rewrite those parts so that they are free and open. This is a key to emulation history. A lot of arcade machines no longer work and with the rise of the video game consoles with Internet access nobody plays arcade games anymore. With MESS a lot of the old video game consoles and home computers are emulated even if they are no longer supported or made anymore. With the JavaScript versions of MESS and MAME once they finish them you can play all of those games in the web browser. ROMs and Disk Images can be found on web sites and BitTorrent sites, but be aware some of the DOS floppy disks and EXE files might be virus infected, hacked, or modified in some way to make a crack work. I say this as a warning because when people archive these DOS games they don't check for viruses and other stuff. In QEMU there is a Venom vulnerability for floppy drive emulation: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=QEMU-VENOM-Vulnerability http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=QEMU-VENO... there might be a similar one in MESS.

joezydeco 11y ago
They have to get permission of the original programmers and if not they have to rewrite those parts so that they are free and open. How considerate. I wonder if the programmers and copyright holders that published these games are getting the same consideration... "ROMs and Disk Images can be found on web sites and BitTorrent sites" Nah, fuck that.
- ChrisClark 11y ago
  They are emulating the hardware, not pirating the software. I don't think DOSBox needs to get permission from id Software because it can run Commander Keen. If the game publishers want to sell their ROMs, they are free to. In fact, because MAME exists, they actually might find some customers to sell to!
  - MaulingMonkey 11y ago
    Or to take a concrete example, I believe several re-releases on GOG take advantage of DOSBox to ensure games are playable on modern systems.
- saul_goodman 11y ago
  Right. Because they are still making and selling classic arcade machines... oh right. But some folks refuse to just let all that code go extinct in dead arcade machines in barns and sheds around the world.
  - joezydeco 11y ago
    Actually, some still are: http://www.namcoamerica.com/game.php?gameid=32 http://www.namcoamerica.com/game.php?gameid=32 Point is: what qualifies you to decide how those old assets should be used? Because you love the game more than the original publisher allegedly does? So by that logic, why does anyone care at all what the original MAME contributors think of their code being switched into an open-source license? Why are their requests any more or less important than the publishers? The point of this hand-grenade was merely to point this out, unpopular an opinion as it is. This whole thinking of "I'm a fan therefore I decide" took us over the cliff a long time ago and there's no going back.
    - textfiles 11y ago
      Joezy, I am concerned you might not be working towards an offer of code contribution.
      - joezydeco 11y ago
        My contributions are involuntary, Jason. They're in some of those ROM images being freely traded about these last couple of decades. Unfortunately I never had any contracts offering me royalties on future republished or derivative works unlike some of my peers. Not that they could claim any these days, anyway. But I think it still should be put in the discourse for posterity.
        textfiles 11y ago
        So, what you been up to, lately?
        11y ago
- orionblastar 11y ago
  The MAME software does not include the ROMs and Disk images. http://mamedev.org/legal.html http://mamedev.org/legal.html It depends on the country if downloading the ROMs or Disk Images is legal or not. Some of the ROMs to released for free for use with MAME: http://mamedev.org/roms/ http://mamedev.org/roms/ The creators of those arcade games made the ROM images free. There was a Starroms company that sold the Atari arcade ROMs for a price. But they went out of business. I'm sorry your ROMs you helped make are pirated all over the Internet. In some places they are archived like at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/messmame https://archive.org/details/messmame It is like a museum that tries to save the older tech stuff that few people care about. Once JSMAME is finished the arcade games will run in a web browser. I want to thank you for making these classic arcade games and say sorry that people pirate your work, but MAME does not distribute ROMs it is select websites on the Internet and BitTorrent sites as well that distribute them. MAME assumes that the user has access to the arcade game and dumped the ROM themselves because they legally own it. But in truth most people just pirate the ROMs, and I wanted to be honest about that.
  - sneak 11y ago
    I think his point was that if most pirate the ROMs, why bother with relicensing the source - just redistribute that without appropriate licensing, too. Both are the work of developers, both are used by all users of MAME.
    - wtetzner 11y ago
      But the MAME developers are not distributing ROMs at all. Just because someone else is doing something illegal, doesn't mean they should too.
      - sneak 11y ago
        I am willing to bet that effectively every single MAME developer has pirated one or more ROMs at one point. Infringement is infringement. The "they don't distribute it with ROMs" is a red herring if those same people are themselves pirating ROMs.

joezydeco 11y ago

They have to get permission of the original programmers and if not they have to rewrite those parts so that they are free and open. How considerate. I wonder if the programmers and copyright holders that published these games are getting the same consideration... "ROMs and Disk Images can be found on web sites and BitTorrent sites" Nah, fuck that.

ChrisClark 11y ago
They are emulating the hardware, not pirating the software. I don't think DOSBox needs to get permission from id Software because it can run Commander Keen. If the game publishers want to sell their ROMs, they are free to. In fact, because MAME exists, they actually might find some customers to sell to!
- MaulingMonkey 11y ago
  Or to take a concrete example, I believe several re-releases on GOG take advantage of DOSBox to ensure games are playable on modern systems.
saul_goodman 11y ago
Right. Because they are still making and selling classic arcade machines... oh right. But some folks refuse to just let all that code go extinct in dead arcade machines in barns and sheds around the world.
- joezydeco 11y ago
  Actually, some still are: http://www.namcoamerica.com/game.php?gameid=32 http://www.namcoamerica.com/game.php?gameid=32 Point is: what qualifies you to decide how those old assets should be used? Because you love the game more than the original publisher allegedly does? So by that logic, why does anyone care at all what the original MAME contributors think of their code being switched into an open-source license? Why are their requests any more or less important than the publishers? The point of this hand-grenade was merely to point this out, unpopular an opinion as it is. This whole thinking of "I'm a fan therefore I decide" took us over the cliff a long time ago and there's no going back.
  - textfiles 11y ago
    Joezy, I am concerned you might not be working towards an offer of code contribution.
    - joezydeco 11y ago
      My contributions are involuntary, Jason. They're in some of those ROM images being freely traded about these last couple of decades. Unfortunately I never had any contracts offering me royalties on future republished or derivative works unlike some of my peers. Not that they could claim any these days, anyway. But I think it still should be put in the discourse for posterity.
      - textfiles 11y ago
        So, what you been up to, lately?
        11y ago
orionblastar 11y ago
The MAME software does not include the ROMs and Disk images. http://mamedev.org/legal.html http://mamedev.org/legal.html It depends on the country if downloading the ROMs or Disk Images is legal or not. Some of the ROMs to released for free for use with MAME: http://mamedev.org/roms/ http://mamedev.org/roms/ The creators of those arcade games made the ROM images free. There was a Starroms company that sold the Atari arcade ROMs for a price. But they went out of business. I'm sorry your ROMs you helped make are pirated all over the Internet. In some places they are archived like at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/messmame https://archive.org/details/messmame It is like a museum that tries to save the older tech stuff that few people care about. Once JSMAME is finished the arcade games will run in a web browser. I want to thank you for making these classic arcade games and say sorry that people pirate your work, but MAME does not distribute ROMs it is select websites on the Internet and BitTorrent sites as well that distribute them. MAME assumes that the user has access to the arcade game and dumped the ROM themselves because they legally own it. But in truth most people just pirate the ROMs, and I wanted to be honest about that.
- sneak 11y ago
  I think his point was that if most pirate the ROMs, why bother with relicensing the source - just redistribute that without appropriate licensing, too. Both are the work of developers, both are used by all users of MAME.
  - wtetzner 11y ago
    But the MAME developers are not distributing ROMs at all. Just because someone else is doing something illegal, doesn't mean they should too.
    - sneak 11y ago
      I am willing to bet that effectively every single MAME developer has pirated one or more ROMs at one point. Infringement is infringement. The "they don't distribute it with ROMs" is a red herring if those same people are themselves pirating ROMs.