ROMs vs ISOs for MAME

[MerlinArcade]

1 minute ago, SentaiBrad said:

You owning the software doesn't mean you can redistribute it though.

I know. ESA said that if I make a backup copy of the CD and give away the backup that I have to give away the CD too and vice versa.

Anyway, I decided not to let my cabinets come with MAME or ROMs in them and will let my clients download them instead.
 

[MerlinArcade]

Things are clearing up these days regarding my new arcade cabinets.

 

First I contacted MAME and asked them if I can install MAME in the cabinet even though I am selling the cabinet.

 

Their answer were...

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There's nothing in the MAME license that prevents you from selling a cabinet with MAME pre-installed. However if you want to distribute any ROMs, game artwork (including screenshots, cabinet art, flyers, etc.) you need a license from the current copyright holder(s) of that media.

 What you cannot do is use the trademarked MAME name/logo/wordmark to promote the product you're selling. It's OK to mention in your feature list “comes with MAME® pre-installed" or similar along with a note in the fine print saying "MAME is a registered trademark of Gregory Ember". You can’t advertise your product as a "MAME cabinet", imply any kind of endorsement from MAMEdev, or use the MAME logo in promotional material without explicit permission.

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So that's cool. My cabinet can come pre-installed with MAME and LB/BB and my Merlin BB Theme.

Now regarding ROM files...

I noticed that if you buy say "Atari Anthology"  for PS2 then if you extract the ISO, you get many .pss files which I believe are ROMs that the PS2 console can read.

However, if I buy the "Atari Anthology" for PC, what I noticed is that when you load the CD-Rom and you click setup, it installed all the folders in your PC including a directory named "Resources" which has ROM and BIN files which are the files that MAME runs.

So by buying the CD-Rom, I don't even have to make "backup" copies or ROMs, I can only point MAME to this  "Resources" directory and MAME will be able to load the games from there.

I just emailed Atari and asked them if I can do that. I mean MAME is not illegal per se and I have bought the CD rights to play the games and I don't even make copies of the ROM, I just play it with a different software than the ones they are providing with the CD-Rom.

If I get an ok then I will be totally legit to build and sell my cabinets, load them with MAME, LB/BB and load about 100 games from 2 platforms (Arcade and Atari 2600) so paving the way to add more games and platforms from my clients if they choose to go that route but if they do, it will be out of my control and they will have to face any consequences if they get caught downloading or installing illegal ROMs.

Merlin