Re: [GNU-linux-libre] MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software

[Ivan Zaigralin]

Of course there are holdouts. You know of one. But they are
disappearing, while the historical use of such emulators becomes more
and more relevant. So while you are probably more right at this moment,
my points are becoming more and more valid every day, and MAME is
turning from overall malicious to useful in the near future.

I mean, even your b.i.l. seems to be motivated by the retro and d.i.y.
aspect of it all, not the ads. And the non-free software in question is
not even utility software, it's pure entertainment, and it's perfectly
safe. It is true we cannot study, improve, or share it, but that does
not make _using_ it either dangerous or unethical. It makes absolutely
no sense to protect anyone from running these games, especially if that
results in people building cabinets and inviting friends over, instead
of paying micro$oft or $ony to install a $500 audio/video bug their your
house.

Consider also that the software component of these things is becoming
ever more trivial by today's standards. For an apt analogy, just think
of these games as interactive books, and MAME as a viewer. These games
are works of art and art historians must be able to view them. There
will never again be a non-free software ecosystem there, but thanks to
MAME a free software ecosystem may yet develop.

On 04/01/2016 01:17 PM, Leo wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 1, 2016 at 8:51 AM, Ivan Zaigralin <address@hidden
> <mailto:address@hidden>> wrote:
> 
>     The point of emulators like this one is to preserve software history.
>     Yes, it emulates non-free software. No, it's no longer relevant. I mean,
>     it's no longer relevant as software, but only as the historical record
>     of what entertainment software was like in the times of yore. New
>     nonfree games are being written today in order to seduce people, so I
>     can see why something like wine is dangerous, but no one, no one will
>     get seduced by a museum piece. MAME does not give any incentive to use
>     non-free software, because all of this old software is obsolete and
>     useless. But it does give an ability to study it from the historical
>     perspective, which is a good thing.
> 
> 
> I disagree with all this. My brother-in-law built an arcade-like cabinet
> and put MAME in it. He plays these games and invites his friends to play
> these games with him. A coworker is working on the same thing. They are
> not exactly obsolete if they still provide entertainment. That's like
> saying that Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is obsolete because now we
> have romantic comedies in 3D.
> 
> That being said, I'm still not sure what to think of MAME, but I
> personally see it in the same level as WINE.

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