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

[J.B. Nicholson]

address@hidden wrote:
> I just wanted to add one more thing: The MAME team has done a wonderful
> thing for software freedom by relicensing to GPL. This will help the idea
> of software freedom reach many many more people than it did before.
>
> We should be applauding them and thanking them. It seems sad to me that the
> main focus of the debate is people arguing that MAME is not free enough
> (despite satisfying the four freedoms).

I don't think anyone is rejecting MAME (or some renamed fork which amicably 
resolves MAME's trademark issue) because they think MAME is nonfree. I 
thought the issue had to do with inducing users to run nonfree software, 
something which would disqualify FSF-approved free software distros from 
carrying MAME per 
https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html.

Joshua Gay from the FSF posted 
https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnu-linux-libre/2016-03/msg00039.html 
which said that a renamed MAME fork should be fine to distribute (to avoid 
an unrelated trademark issue with MAME) and suggested not linking to the 
MAME site to avoid nonfree software inducement.