MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Confused about the new MAME license and FAQs...

> This
> either suggests that MAME has not completely updated their FAQs or there's something
> more complicated going on).

In that case, the MAME team simply haven't updated the FAQs completely yet. I'd like to know exactly what URL you saw that info at so that I can raise it with the guy in charge of our documentation.

> 1. If you have an arcade PCB, is it okay to copy the ROM from the PCB for MAME's use?

To my understanding, yes.

> You need permission from the original company to do this, right?

To my understanding, no.

> 2. Can MAME be used in this way commercially (legally, that is)? Not every file is
> licensed under BSD; are any of these files integral to MAME's operation?

3-clause BSD is a more permissive license than GPLv2+. MAME's previous issue with commercial use arose from the fact that it previously had a BSD license that was custom-modified to have a "no-commercial-use" clause. In principle, there's nothing against either the 3-clause BSD or GPLv2+ licenses that prohibits commercial use, other than the requirement by GPLv2+ that any code using it must also be open-source (if I understand it correctly).

> 3. On said legal page, what is the exact meaning of "rights to ROMs" in regards to
> placing a machine in a public location? Before the license was changed, this
> constituted commercial use, so how does this stack up with the second-to last
> question in the FAQ (about using MAME to replace a PCB) and other FAQ answers where
> it's implied or outright stated that commercial use is a no-no?

"Rights to ROMs" as in "you have received explicit permission from the original game manufacturers to operate the ROM set(s), on location, commercially. You have to understand that most of the legalese there is to protect our, the MAME team's, collective asses against any companies that want to sue us over having a project that is (officially) simply a hardware documentation project, with games being playable as a "nice side effect", to use the classic MAME team quote. None of us are attorneys, none of us have even the remotest capability of giving you legal advice. We're all programmers and geeks, not attorneys, so we are in no way able to give you legal advice. We can advise you as to our current understanding of how and why the MAME license is the way it is, but that's really all we can do.

> 4. If this is not too much to ask and commercial use is indeed feasible in some
> manner, how does one go about obtaining these "rights to ROMs"?

Seriously, go talk to an attorney, not us.

> (I apologize in advance if I'm missing something obvious. I just want to get a
> definite answer.)

Then go talk to an attorney. Your questions are way more centered around how you can somehow use MAME to turn a profit in whatever way that you'd prefer not to detail (which throws up red flags), so please go and detail those ways to an attorney who can advise you in the best course of action, because we sure can't.