“This whole thing started with a few academic papers and museums noting that they cannot use MAME/MESS even for a preservation standpoint (which is the whole POINT of the MAME/MESS projects) due to its overly restrictive no-commercial-use license.”
I bring up the funny line from the late Peter Seller's Sidny Wang character (Murder by Death, 1976):
"Is most stupid theory I ever heard!" Peter Sellers as Inspector Sidney Wang in Murder by Death (1976)
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I can see why the license updates might be needed for other open source/source available emulators. The museum and academia views of: "...must avoid MAME." is odd imo.
>It seems beyond ironic to me that a group of people could do all the work required in >building and running a museum, hiring people, advertising, collecting all the pieces >and even erm, actually reading the mame license and then after all that they are >somehow too lazy to send a 5 minute email asking mamedev for a special use permission. >That sudden jolt of laziness sounds really unlikely.
I agree. Al K. could handle this for museum he is involved with and it seems other museums or universities should be able to work with MAME. Is it because lawsuit happy lawyers are nearby premises ready to jump out and say "Boo! You're being sued!"?