MAME Trademark in Jeopardy

[koltz]

He has to prove ownership of the copyrights before his is granted them and I believe that there is proof from way back on who designed the logo and the original creator of the MAME program. Now what he should be doing (and eBay) is finding these systems that have the ROMs bundled. I have seen a ton of emulation disks for sale on eBay which I thought was illegal. If he wants to fight emulation, he should be getting the companies behind him to do it. I highly doubt he will be awarded the copyrights on MAME and honestly I believe them trying to do this will hurt his company even more.

Corey

[calthaer]

So where can we donate to cover the real MAME creators' legal fees?

[stargate]

His intentions are questionable at best. how exactly will owning the MAME name/logo stop piracy? why does he feel he is entitled to own the MAME name/ logo when he had NOTHING to do with its creation? How will any of this stop the sale of emulator cabinets on ebay?

The guy is full of sh!t, period. none of his reasoning makes sense. it is pretty clear what he is up to. he is going after MAME because MAME is the biggest competition to his company, and its free to boot. this is his first step. if he gains ownership of the MAME name he will file a cease and desist against the true MAME owners. further litigation will follow, guaranteed. he will spearhead the fight against any type of emulation because it cuts into his profits.

The creators of MAME and other emulators will likely fold up shop and disappear. They do not have the time nor resources to fight a lengthy legal battle.

And the only option that will be left in the end is a $4,000.00 Ultracade machine (that will be renamed MAME because he owns the rights) which will come with the games that he decides are popular/ lucrative to own the rights to. Should you want to play any rare or obscure games, well tough sh!t.

So I stand by my initial assessment. The guy is a dick!!!

[SuperGunGuru]

His intentions are questionable at best. how exactly will owning the MAME name/logo stop piracy? why does he feel he is entitled to own the MAME name/ logo when he had NOTHING to do with its creation? How will any of this stop the sale of emulator cabinets on ebay?

The guy is full of sh!t, period. none of his reasoning makes sense. it is pretty clear what he is up to. he is going after MAME because MAME is the biggest competition to his company, and its free to boot. this is his first step. if he gains ownership of the MAME name he will file a cease and desist against the true MAME owners. further litigation will follow, guaranteed. he will spearhead the fight against any type of emulation because it cuts into his profits.

The creators of MAME and other emulators will likely fold up shop and disappear. They do not have the time nor resources to fight a lengthy legal battle.

And the only option that will be left in the end is a $4,000.00 Ultracade machine (that will be renamed MAME because he owns the rights) which will come with the games that he decides are popular/ lucrative to own the rights to. Should you want to play any rare or obscure games, well tough sh!t.

So I stand by my initial assessment. The guy is a dick!!!

This pretty much sums up my feelings. I don't agree with selling mame cabs with roms fully loaded and even providing links to them is questionable for me. This guy has already tried to get royalties from people that use the mame logo for stuff like marquees, yet he has said that's not what he's about. He doesn't even have the trademark and he's trying to get royalties.

[Jorpho]

Royalties? I saw nothing about that.

[SuperGunGuru]

I believe it was on arcadecontrols.com where I read about the royalties. Someone said they got an email from this guy asking for royalties from using the MAME logo for marquees or whatever.

[Nature Boy]

I'm a little confused. Is it just the name and logo "MAME" that he's going after? 'Cause if it is who cares? The guy who created it should get some bucks for his work of course but I don't see why an emulator of another name would smell foul.

If it's the emulator itself that would stink but it's not like emulations is 100% legal, right? Owning roms of stuff you don't own yourself and all that? And that falls into the "well, I enjoyed it while I could - what's next" category.

[stargate]

I'm a little confused. Is it just the name and logo "MAME" that he's going after? 'Cause if it is who cares? The guy who created it should get some bucks for his work of course but I don't see why an emulator of another name would smell foul.

If it's the emulator itself that would stink but it's not like emulations is 100% legal, right? Owning roms of stuff you don't own yourself and all that? And that falls into the "well, I enjoyed it while I could - what's next" category.

I believe (for now) it is only the name and logo "MAME" he is after. Who cares? Well, this guy had nothing to do with MAME, the name or logo so he is basically trying to obtain the rights to something he had no part in creating. Imagine if you spent the better part of the past decade creating something and then some guy comes along and tries to steal it from you and then sues you for using it?? It's totally whacked.

Anyway, like I said, this is just the beginning. He will certainly try to shut down any form of emulation because it is hurting his business. Hopefully he falls flat on his face.

As for the whole "well, I enjoyed it while I could - what's next" aspect of it... Well, if emulation gets stamped out, the entire purpose behind emulation (preserving classic arcade games) will be lost as well. There are really only a handful of commercially viable classic games out there. The others will undoubtedly get swallowed up by time. How many functioning Rastan games do you think are still out there? What about Wizard of Wor, Sky Smashers, Scrambled Egg, Victory Road, Mikie High School Graffiti, Moon Cresta, etc etc. Well, not many. Now admittedly many people, most people, couldn't give a sh!t. Others, like myself, want to preserve ALL videogames for future generations to be able to enjoy. I would love to be able to show my grandchildren what I was playing when I was 12 years old. I feel that all videogames should be preserved. Emulation is the only way to accomplish this.

So when someone comes along and tries to shut down emulation (and it is always due to greed), just keep in mind the consequences.

As for the whole "emulation is illegal" deal. Well, technically, this holds some truth. But ask yourself this: If a billionaire went around the world buying up every piece if classic art, art that many considered an integral part of our history and culture and then announced he was going to destroy it all in a huge bonfire, what should we do? Do we let him destroy it because he owns it? because he has a legal right to destroy it? F that, someone has to step up to the plate and say "this is wrong" and save it.

[Jorpho]

Anyway, like I said, this is just the beginning. He will certainly try to shut down any form of emulation because it is hurting his business. Hopefully he falls flat on his face.

That's a rather harsh way of putting it... He just doesn't want people to make money (and compete with him) doing something illegally that he has worked hard to do legally.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

That's a rather harsh way of putting it... He just doesn't want people to make money (and compete with him) doing something illegally that he has worked hard to do legally.

That may be the case, but I think what people are objecting to is that he's going about it the wrong way, and quite probably doing something illegal (claiming someone else's intellectual property as his own) in the process.

[Iron Draggon]

OK, let's assume that he wins. What happens to "Put The Blame On Mame"? This is totally stupid. I hope that the judge throws HIM in jail for attempting it.

[Push Upstairs]

That's a rather harsh way of putting it... He just doesn't want people to make money (and compete with him) doing something illegally that he has worked hard to do legally.

PDF said it first but i will sum it up like this.

Doing something wrong (trademarking something that was never yours) to combat something wrong (playing illegal ROMS) doesnt make him right in any way.

The way he is going with this makes him far worse than those people downloading and playing ROM's.

[Nature Boy]

I believe (for now) it is only the name and logo "MAME" he is after. Who cares? Well, this guy had nothing to do with MAME, the name or logo so he is basically trying to obtain the rights to something he had no part in creating. Imagine if you spent the better part of the past decade creating something and then some guy comes along and tries to steal it from you and then sues you for using it?? It's totally whacked.

I *did* say he should be compensated for creating the logo. I do care about that. And I hope he fights it.

Well, if emulation gets stamped out, the entire purpose behind emulation (preserving classic arcade games) will be lost as well. .

I personally don't think emulation will *ever* be stamped out. It might be harder to come by roms or emulators, but it *will* live on. After all, creating a game for scratch that runs on a VCS emulator is 100% legal.

[Sylentwulf]

Nice

[Push Upstairs]

The guys name is David Foley?

I was picturing the guy from News Radio/Kids in the Hall

[stonic]

Ultracade is featured in this month's Playmeter mag. There was no mention of the whole MAME flap. Likewise, it appears he removed all his comments about it from his website.

Foley/Ultracade = owned

[kingpong]

In the end, Foley wasn't so bad. Though probably the result of a bunch of backpedaling, and not his original plan, within a short period of time after the whole thing started he withdrew his claim without whining and it was picked up by Nicola. Overall, it wound up being a good thing for MAME, as it led to the revision of the MAME license (though it is still as laughable as any open or semi-open source license) and other legal-ish things, as well as spurring on increased actions against unwanted non-official MAME builds.

[SuperNES]

[pragmatic insanester]

It's not like people are buying MAME cabs to satisfy their cravings for pornographic Mahjongg games

DO NOT TRAMPLE ON MY NICHE MARKET!

[stonic]

Well, the legit owner(s) of MAME(tm) are now going after EVERY auction that has "MAME" in the description:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/inde...c,37734.0.html

There's also a big thread in RGVAC right now about it.

Thanks, Foley. Thanks a lot.