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MAME Changing License To Fully Libre One
jones_supa writes: The source code of MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) has long been freely available, but it's never been completely libre. Instead, it's been available under a modified BSD license that prohibits, among other things, commercial use of the code. MAME engineer Miodrag Milanovic explains that such a license was put in place to deter "misuse of MAME in illegal ways," but it also kept legitimate commercial entities doing business with the software. Examples of such could be museums that charge entry fees from using MAME in their exhibits, or copyright holders rereleasing vintage games encapsulated inside MAME. Now the project wants to go fully open. Milanovic continues: "Our aim is to help legal license owners in distributing their games based on MAME platform, and to make MAME become a learning tool for developers working on development boards." As of yet, there are no specific details about the new license.
Now I can build and sell bartops with MAME and ILLEGAL ROMs.
Given the wording, that sounds like they're going to have to contact either every contributor for copyright re-attribution, or rewrite their code for them.
It's the same problem as appears in kernel GPL 2 vs GPL 3 arguments - it's moot at the end of the day unless someone contacts every copyright holder and gets them to agree, or rewrite whatever code of theirs is still active in the codebase.
And MAME's such a big and worldwide project that there's bound to be dead contributors, and lots of uncontactable ones too - given the history.
I thought the license is going to be bsd3 for core, and bsd3/gplv2/lgpl for drivers/etc
How did it do that? By threatening to kill their pets if they stopped?
At the bottom of the
Having RTFA I wonder if the bigger news isn't this part
"From now on there will be only one release executable that covers all arcades, computers and consoles," says Milanovic. "But we will stay under name 'MAME,' that is our trademark."
Does this mean we can look forward to MAME emulating our favourite consoles with the same care they've done for arcade machines? The last 2 years of MAME releases have been phenomenal, best in its history, so I really hope we see the same love given to console because rocking the Sega Master System in MAME would be something else. I've always thought of it as a natural marriage because a large number of the pages on www.system16.com state that many Sega arcades and Sega consoles used the same hardware as each other.
to revitalize arcades. There's a few barcades out there (Dave & Busters) but they're mostly ticket games to keep the dollars per minute of play high. There was a bowling alley in my neck of the woods that advertised a real arcade. I called to be sure and they told me they had 100+ arcade machines. 60 minute drive latter and the closest thing to an "Arcade" machine they had was a Sega truck driving game...
It's the wood really, and the TV. The cabinets are too expensive to make even as hardware gets cheaper. That and a declining middle class who can't afford to drop that much money into machines. Inflation means games need to be at least 75 cents a play and really want to be $1.33, but that's a heck of a lot of money for 5 minutes of gaming...
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Posting as AC because I don't have an account, but I've been a periodic contributor to MAME and MESS for the past 15 years or so. For those unaware, MESS is the sister project to MAME. While MAME has always concentrated on coin-op games, MESS is the effective catch-all for everything else - handhelds, phones, set-top-boxes, consoles, computers, development boards, and more - using the same core library. For the sake of visibility, just this past week we have made the decision to incorporate MESS into MAME as a fundamental component.
As for licensing, The vast majority of contributors have been contacted, and responses are trickling in. In general the responses seem split across "I don't care", "GPLv2", and the stock BSD 3-clause that we're hoping to move toward. You can keep track of the ongoing per-source-file relicensing on MAME/MESS's Github page here: https://github.com/mamedev/mame
I can say that the move to Github has been a uniformly positive one, as it has streamlined the process of incorporating patches from external developers, and has brought more visibility to the project. Visibility is a critical thing for projects like MAME and MESS, because we're literally working against the clock to preserve digital history, so more people feeling motivated to contribute to the project is unequivocally a Good Thing(tm). While there are those out there who see the project as nothing more than a venue for free games, the fact is that the project allows people who own these arcade boards to repair them in many cases, and it provides an archive for companies that are not otherwise interested in preserving their own history. Bit-rot is a real thing, and by preserving the contents of EEPROMs, flash ROMs, PROMs, PALs/GALs and other programmable devices, people are able to restore their games to a working state more often than not.
I would go so far as to say that the project, in fact, benefits game companies themselves. I've worked in the industry for the better part of 10 years now, and I can tell you that most companies are not interested in proper archiving of their early games. However, with retro game packs being an actual viable product these days, these companies are now going back through their archives only to find that they didn't keep any copies of the disks or ROMs around. MAME and MESS, by incentivizing the decentralized distribution of these games, has essentially ensured that these games will still be around when the companies decide to unearth them. This isn't just idealism, either - if you look at retro game packs from companies like Sega, Taito, Namo, and Konami, you'll find that more often than not, they actually use the same ROM files that MAME does, in ZIP files, sometimes even containing the readme.txt from the original dumper - so you know it didn't originate internally to the company.
Ultimately, the relicensing is one of many steps necessary to bring broader appeal to the project, whether it is to businesses, developers, or users.
I'm a little lost... why under the existing license would it be hard for the rightsholder to specific games to just go to the MAME team, and work it out? OF course, a more flexible, and open license is always a good thing IMO (too much rigidity hinders efforts that could be legal and good of course, but this specific example given still puzzled me.
:(
And I wish they'd make some progress on Bemani System573 Digital emulation.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
There is a court case right now with an similar emulator that took open source added the code for the hardware (custom pci card and os code tied to an oldx86 chipset) with drm with a USB device and some came out with a free emu that does the same thing with an bypass of the usb device and they sued them
Also, summary doesn't make sense. A museum charging admission does not a commercial entity make.
Since everyone knows that MAME has the best chiptune emulation! There are other uses for the MAME code than full system emulation.
One can hope that the Yamaha YM2151 emulation will join the list but either way its a good thing for retro enthusiasts!
Little known fact: Hats off to one of the original geeks who inspired a generation who is an author of MAME32, Chris Kirmse. Also the author of one of the first MMORPGs ever based on the Doom engine, Meridian 59, and a Virginia Tech alumni. The geek is strong in that one.