Re: [GNU-linux-libre] MAME

[Julian Marchant]

On 03/31/2016 12:59 AM, J.B. Nicholson wrote:
> MAME requires nonfree code (game ROMs) to run the game. As far as I know
> all MAME ROMs are nonfree.

As far as I know, all Flash objects are non-libre. Flash objects usually
contain ActionScript code, i.e. programs. But this is a rather
insubstantial point. As far as I knew last year, all NES code was
proprietary, and then I found out that there's a libre homebrew NES game
called "Escape from Pong".

This is the error in your reasoning: even if it's true that there is no
libre software at all available for any of the systems MAME emulates,
that doesn't necessarily mean that MAME requires proprietary software to
work. From our perspective, that case is no different from if no
software at all existed for the systems. That would make MAME useless
today, but not unethical.

-- 
Julian Marchant
https://onpon4.github.io

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