Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (
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Rev. Stuart Campbell wrote:
> "MCR" <mark.coleman10@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> news:3tvNe.14490$1F5.1184@newsfe4-win.ntli.net...
>
>>Quite right, they were wrong... But tell Stuart, do two wrongs make a
>
> right?
>
> What on Earth are you talking about? If I punch someone in the face because
> I'm somehow offended by YOUR shoes, is it fair for them to blame you for the
> attack? Of course not. There is simply no legitimate link whatsoever between
> Ultracade's actions and ROM sellers, therefore it is absurd to blame ROM
> sellers for what Ultracade did (or, indeed, failed to do).
I can understand what you are saying, but I believe all activities put
MAME at risk, because an increase in popularity, is an increase in
exposure. The at risk bit comes from MAMEDev, if a percieved danger of
legal action centres around MAME(tm), then the Dev's will leave the
project, and MAME will stagnate. Unfortunately for the Dev's MAME is
large, so they have to deal with a large fanbase, which consist of a
wide variety of people, different countries, different expectations,
different philosophies. That can get tiring no doubt.
> So far, nobody has yet given me a single example of a way in which ROM
> sellers have damaged MAME. We've had examples of OTHER people damaging MAME
> (by withdrawing ROM-dump donations in a sulk at the think that someone
> somewhere might make a dollar out of it), and OTHER people FAILING to damage
> MAME (Ultracade), but not a single example of ROM sellers actually doing any
> harm whatsoever.
I cannot give you an example either, but it is a bit off to be making a
profit over something which you get for free. Whereas some in this
group have a strong motivation to end these activities (respect to
them), personally I have a non-interference policy. We may disagree
morally, but we all love MAME.
> ROM sellers are charging for a *service*, not for ROMs.
Semantics, they say they are selling ROMs, you say they are selling
DVD's. Doesnt matter. Your $50 will buy you DVD's with ROMs on it.
> They're charging
> people for saving them the effort having to spend days and days locating and
> then downloading 50GB of files. Everyone involved in the transaction is
> happy. I have no time whatsoever for a bunch of people who are committing
> criminal acts (pretty much all MAME users) getting all whiny over some other
> people who are doing the exact same thing.
>
>
That was my arguement some time ago! Although I cannot agree with
everything that you say, I must say that it is 'weird' that we are ALL
commiting piracy, yet there appears to be some form of moral pecking
order within that group
🙂
In the UK where I live, there is no fair-use rights, none. Also within
the EU (and US) it is illegal to own ROMs PERIOD. You cannot have
'backups' of boards that you own, you cannot keep ROM images that are
copyrighted on your HD to use with an emulator... it is ILLEGAL.
Hearing the comments of some on the MAME.NET board say things like "I
onw the board" means squat.
The thing that makes me laugh personally is that Nicola's original MAME
release made it pretty clear it was about the games. You had comments
like "update all your colour proms" etc. None of this is in despute,
hell, you can't tell me that he went over to zip support purely to keep
the MAME directory tidy! It was because at the time, hard disks were
not that large, and games were being added at an incredible rate.
The focus of MAME has changed though, which is OK. If I didnt accept
that MAME has taken a more serious direction, I would not be downloading
it, and reaping the benefits of all the hard work of some very talented
people. Maybe the direction will change again in the future, who can tell?
--
MCR
MAME(tm) - History In The Making
www.pleasure-dome.org.uk
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