MerlinArcade Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 14 minutes ago, lordmonkus said: You didn't connect it to the internet to download roms. You downloaded a bios file to actually make the system work because out of the box it did not do anything. "Bung maintains copies of a program on the Internet that allows users to make unauthorized copies of the games." http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Nintendo_of_America_v._Bung_Enterprises Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Yeah, it was a bios file for the V64 that allowed the unit to make backups. Like I said, I actually owned one of these units along with friends of mine. I even owned one of these for SNES and Genesis. But this has nothing to do with your original question at all. Making backups for personal use is not the issue at all but re-selling the roms in any format is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerlinArcade Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 The key I guess is to sell the cabinets and let the users download MAME, the ROMs and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Legally your best bet is to do it the way RetroPie does things. Make your hardware to sell. Have a disk image that has all the software (minus the roms) to download for free like the RetroPie. Put a USB stick in the hardware and it will then generate all the rom folders then put the USB stick back in your main PC and the user copies their roms to the appropriate folders on the USB stick. Then plug the USB stick back into the cabinet and it will copy the roms over to the drive in the cabinet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerlinArcade Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 I will have all the folders ready including Launchbox and BB and also have the USB stick for them to copy the ROMs they want to add in the cabinet but tell them that if they do that, they take full responsability for that meaning that they will have to buy the CDs or cartridge to be legal like X-Arcade does. I know that I cannot sell MAME but don't know the difference between selling the cabinet and giving away MAME in it for free and sell the cabinet and let them download on my website the MAME software so that they install it. If the cabinet comes already with MAME, them they may think that I'm selling MAME while in fact it's free but because they will be the ones downloading it then I won't have to face those issues because the cabinet will not come with the ROMs nor MAME already installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 The difference is in that is what the license that Mame falls under does not allow it to be packaged in with a commercial product. I also hope that since you are planning on having Launchbox with it that you have a deal worked out with @Jason Carrif you are packaging in the premium BigBox mode. You also need to consider the operating system as well since you are talking about a Windows only program like Launchbox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 yep LB would have even more restrictions than MAME since it is privately owned software. MAME won't care that you are selling the cabs and MAME is free they care that you are selling them and MAME comes with it period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerlinArcade Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 1 minute ago, lordmonkus said: The difference is in that is what the license that Mame falls under does not allow it to be packaged in with a commercial product. I also hope that since you are planning on having Launchbox with it that you have a deal worked out with @Jason Carrif you are packaging in the premium BigBox mode. You also need to consider the operating system as well since you are talking about a Windows only program like Launchbox. Yeah Jason knows already and as for Windows, my cabinets will come with a PC in it already installed and setup. I think that this 2nd approach of letting clients download a zip file with MAME already configured to match with the cabinets ROMs directories and the X-arcade tankstick controller will be a safe bet for me. The more legal responsabilities I can dump on my clients, the safer I am. After all, it's never the end user that gets sued, it's always the front company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Like I said as long as you cover all your bases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerlinArcade Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 1 minute ago, DOS76 said: yep LB would have even more restrictions than MAME since it is privately owned software. MAME won't care that you are selling the cabs and MAME is free they care that you are selling them and MAME comes with it period. Ok but it's hard to convince in court that the cabinet cost money but the MAME inside was free. Follow me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 No if MAME came installed on the cab it would be pretty much open and shut but if not I don't see the issue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Mames license strictly prohibits it being packaged with a commercial product, it's right in the license for it, much like most other emulators. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerlinArcade Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 (edited) 5 minutes ago, lordmonkus said: Mames license strictly prohibits it being packaged with a commercial product, it's right in the license for it, much like most other emulators. Yeah and the keyword here is "packaged" meaning coming with the cabinet. Therefore the need to separate them. As for letting clients download it for free on a commercial device then suck it up MAME, ALL the PCs that have downloaded your MAME are commercial devices. That will be an easy win for me in court if they go that route. Edited February 1, 2017 by MerlinArcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Now we're in court and you said earlier you didn't need a lawyer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerlinArcade Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 Not if I have all my bases covered I won't. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Yeah, I will say that as much as I wanted us to sell cabinets ourselves, the restrictions with distributing emulators alone pretty much prevents it, unless we force the user to do all the setup work, which kind of defeats the purpose. I was pretty excited about it at first but every time I turn around there's another thing that gets in the way, so it probably won't happen for us. Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the legal trouble at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerlinArcade Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 To be honest, I didn't want to go with the "Coming with 250 games included" part but seeing many others cabinet builders going that way, I thought about doing what they did and buy the CDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Seriously, if you are going to pursue this you really should get a lawyer to make sure all your bases are covered. Make sure with 100% certainty that you are covered when it comes to the OS and all other software licenses. Getting a lawyer who specializes in all of this tangled shit will save you a lot of possible future headaches. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerlinArcade Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 2 minutes ago, Jason Carr said: Yeah, I will say that as much as I wanted us to sell cabinets ourselves, the restrictions with distributing emulators alone pretty much prevents it, unless we force the user to do all the setup work, which kind of defeats the purpose. I was pretty excited about it at first but every time I turn around there's another thing that gets in the way, so it probably won't happen for us. Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the legal trouble at this point. Yeah I know and that's why I contacted Nintendo, the ESA and X-Gaming and asked them a bunch of questions and they don't seem to be bothered as long as I buy the CDs first (PS 2 or else) to cover the ROM games but as we see here in this conversation, it's always better to build the hardware and them let the end user download the software so that they take full responsibilities Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 You owning the software doesn't mean you can redistribute it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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