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Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software
From: |
Jean Louis |
Subject: |
Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software |
Date: |
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 06:42:43 +0200 |
For further thinkering, for those people who shoule be deciding what
software shall be included in free software distribution and what not,
here are some arguments:
Guidelines, read them well, especially sections such as "Nonfree
Firmware", then section "Trademarks", and "Please Teach Users about Free
Software":
http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
List of software that does not respect the Free System Distribution
Guidelines (this is work in progress):
https://libreplanet.org/wiki/List_of_software_that_does_not_respect_the_Free_System_Distribution_Guidelines
What is going on at Trisquel:
https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/software-does-not-respect-free-system-distribution-guidelines
At the Trisquel link, one can see "Mac-on-Linux emulator":
Description: Allows running MacOS inside a GNU/Linux system,
Problem: Only runs/supports proprietary software
Recommended Fix: Remove program/package
(Source) package name(s): mol, mol-drivers-linux
Trisquel Status: Fixed (removed upstream)
Compare the above to MAME issue, as it is similar.
Now is the time to think. It will be late in 3-5 years to correct
mistakes:
- decision to include MAME in a free GNU distribution directly
influences users to use non-free software and promotes non-free
software
- the argument "let us search for one free software ROM" to justify the
inclusion of MAME in such free distribution is one-sided, and does not
foresee the future results. As MAME is made exclusively with the
purpose to support non-free software, the practical future result is
that people will be guided to download and use non-free ROMs,
- free software distribution shall not offer a platform for conservancy
of non-free software for future,
- it can be clearly seen that website of MAME: http://mamedev.org/
offers under Download section, non-free ROMs:
http://mamedev.org/roms/ (disregard their definiton of "free" as they
are not)
- why would free software distribution support and include software that
was primarily made for usage of non-free software?! Single fact that
such software is free does not demand and promote usage of free
software. See Guidelines.
- MAME® is a U.S. registered trademark, that may be found with the
USPTO:
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=login&p_lang=english&p_d=trmk
by searching for: MAME, serial number: 78578919, where it says:
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S:
Downloadable computer software that enables the emulation of arcade
games and their associated hardware, allowing them to run on a general
purpose computer operating system. FIRST USE: 19981100. FIRST USE IN
COMMERCE: 19981100
Owner (REGISTRANT) Salmoria, Nicola
And the owner, clearly says on the website: http://mamedev.org/
"Please note that MAME is a registered trademark of Nicola Salmoria,
and permission is required to use the "MAME" name, logo or wordmark. "
which makes the whole software package under that name (MAME®) non-free and
incompatible with GPL 2.0 -- for example, I cannot sell MAME package
that I would get from GuixSD, as I would be required special
permission to use MAME® trademark.
- or Nicola Salmoria could make to the distribution something like what
KIK INTERACTIVE INC. did to kik package with the NPM:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11341491 and trademark issues are
the exact reason why some other packages are not included or have been
forked
- using MAME is endorsement for the use of non-free ROMs, even if there
would be 1-2 free ROMs, people would come to MAME website and download
non-free ROMs.
Regarding Wine:
- Wine website is constantly endorsing non-free software, what is easy
to see from their News: https://www.winehq.org/announce/1.9.6 as they
develop the software to run non-free software, I guess mostly for
gamers, who don't care about free software philosophy.
- for that same reason I would reject Wine in ALL free software
distributions.
- single fact that some piece of software is free software, shall not be
the only factor to consider inclusion of software in free software
distribution.
- Wine is not "freedom respecting" software (see guidelines), and as
such, does not demand, rather it encourages users to use non-free
software.
- few exceptional cases may exceptionally download it and run for their
exceptional uses in the non-free world, without inclusion of Wine in
the free software distribution.
All written above are my opinion, and not legal advices.
Jean Louis
- MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Jean Louis, 2016/03/28
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Jookia, 2016/03/28
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software,
Jean Louis <=
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Jookia, 2016/03/29
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Jean Louis, 2016/03/29
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Jookia, 2016/03/29
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, rain1, 2016/03/29
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Jean Louis, 2016/03/29
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Nils Gillmann, 2016/03/29
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Mathieu Lirzin, 2016/03/29
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Jean Louis, 2016/03/29
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Ludovic Courtès, 2016/03/29
- Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software, Jean Louis, 2016/03/29