So MAME just announced it's going full open source, after obtaining permission from all the developers involved in it.
http://mamedev.org/?p=422
Which is good. But MAME also announced that any future "derivative builds" of MAME, i.e. MAMEUI, MAMEUIFX etc. will require THEIR authors to go through the same amount of work and get their version relicensed.
http://mamedev.org/?p=423
Which is awful. In response, the author of MAMEUIFX has quit development permanently.
http://mame32fx.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=288&sid=35bc383e6b203e9fe1f98d890a0ba85f
Which is CATASTROPHIC. It was the best version of MAME, and now it's gone, just like that.
This makes me really hopeful that we get a better Arcade database going in Launchbox, because I'm NOT just using standard MAME.