Re: [GNU-linux-libre] MAME

[Felipe Sanches]

What are the goals of Gnash ?

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 2:18 PM, J.B. Nicholson <address@hidden> wrote:
> Felipe Sanches wrote:
>>
>> Such museum (without any ROM file) is now fully free, regardless of
>> what you might attempt to do with it at runtime after compiling it.
>
>
> Practical emulator usage requires some program to run, and in MAME's case
> those programs are nonfree perhaps with a few exceptions.
>
>> The source code is the most important portion of the MAME project,
>> because it is though the source code that the goal of "preserving the
>> history of gaming and computing hardware" is achieved. The runtime
>> binaries tend to be seen as a mere collateral effect of the hardware
>> documentation efforts (also providing evidence that the hw
>> documentation is probably accurate).
>
>
> I think it's important not to conflate goals. Despite reaching the goals
> MAME's developers set out for MAME, why should MAME be included as part of
> an FSF-approved free software distribution
> (https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html) when
> practical usage appears to violate the requirement that "A free system
> distribution must not steer users towards obtaining any nonfree information
> for practical use, or encourage them to do so."?
>
> If MAME's practical use can't meet this requirement, MAME's description on
> https://libreplanet.org/wiki/List_of_software_that_does_not_respect_the_Free_System_Distribution_Guidelines#MAME
> should change to something that explains MAME "steer[s or encourages] users
> towards obtaining nonfree information for practical use".
>