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@@ -3,68 +3,85 @@ What is MAME
MAME is a multi-purpose emulation framework.
-MAME's purpose is to preserve decades of software history. As electronic technology continues to rush forward, MAME prevents this important "vintage" software from being lost and forgotten. This is achieved by documenting the hardware and how it functions. The source code to MAME serves as this documentation. The fact that the software is usable serves primarily to validate the accuracy of the documentation (how else can you prove that you have recreated the hardware faithfully?). Over time, MAME (originally stood for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) absorbed the sister-project MESS (Multi Emulator Super System), so MAME now documents a wide variety of (mostly vintage) computers, video game consoles and calculators, in addition to the arcade video games that were its initial focus.
+MAME’s purpose is to preserve decades of software history. As
+electronic technology continues to rush forward, MAME prevents this
+important “vintage” software from being lost and forgotten. This is
+achieved by documenting the hardware and how it functions. The source
+code to MAME serves as this documentation. The fact that the software
+is usable serves primarily to validate the accuracy of the documentation
+(how else can you prove that you have recreated the hardware
+faithfully?). MAME, originally the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator,
+absorbed sister-projects, including MESS (Multi-Emulator Super System)
+and AGEMAME (Arcade Gambling Extensions for MAME), so MAME now documents
+a wide variety of (mostly vintage) computers, video game consoles,
+calculators and gambling machines, in addition to the arcade video games
+that were its initial focus.
|
| **MAME®**
-| **Copyright © 1997-2021 by Nicola Salmoria and the MAME team**
-| **MAME is a registered trademark owned by Gregory Ember**
+| **Copyright © 1997-2024 MAMEdev and contributors**
+| **MAME is a registered trademark of Gregory Ember**
|
I. Purpose
----------
-MAME's main purpose is to be a reference to the inner workings of the
-emulated machines. This is done both for educational purposes and for
+MAME’s main purpose is to be a reference to the inner workings of the
+emulated machines. This is done both for educational purposes and for
preservation purposes, in order to prevent historical software from
-disappearing forever once the hardware it runs on stops working. Of
+disappearing forever once the hardware it runs on stops working. Of
course, in order to preserve the software and demonstrate that the
emulated behavior matches the original, one must also be able to
-actually use the software. This is considered a nice side effect, and is
-not MAME's primary focus.
+actually use the software. This is considered a nice side effect, and
+is not MAME’s primary focus.
It is not our intention to infringe on any copyrights or patents on the
-original games. All of MAME's source code is either our own or freely
-available. To operate, the emulator requires images of the original
-ROMs, CDs, hard disks or other media from the machines, which must be
-provided by the user. No portions of the original game code are included
-in the executable.
+original software and systems. All of MAME’s source code is either our
+own or freely available. To operate, the emulator requires images of
+the original ROMs, CDs, hard disks or other media from the machines,
+which must be provided by the user. No portions of the original
+software are included in the MAME executable.
II. Cost
--------
-MAME is free. Its source code is free. The project as whole is
-distributed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later
-(GPL-2.0+), but most of code (including core functionality) is also
-available under the 3-clause BSD license (BSD-3-clause).
+
+MAME is made available at no cost. Its source code is freely available.
+The project as whole is distributed under the terms of the GNU General
+Public License, version 2 or later (GPL-2.0+), but most of code,
+including core functionality, is also available under the terms of the
+more permissive 3-clause BSD license (BSD-3-clause).
III. Software Image Files
-------------------------
ROM, CD, hard disk and other media images are all copyrighted material.
-They cannot be distributed without the explicit permission of the
-copyright holder(s). They are not "abandonware", nor has any of the
-software supported by MAME passed out of copyright.
+They may not be lawfully distributed without the explicit permission of
+the copyright holder(s). They are not “abandonware”, nor has copyright
+expired on any of the software supported by MAME.
MAME is not intended to be used as a tool for mass copyright
-infringement. Therefore, it is strongly against the authors' wishes to
+infringement. Therefore, it is strongly against the authors’ wishes to
sell, advertise, or link to resources that provide illegal copies of
ROM, CD, hard disk or other media images.
IV. Derivative Works
--------------------
+
Because the name MAME is trademarked, you must abide by the rules set
-out for trademark usage if you wish to use "MAME" as part of the name
-your derivative work. In general, this means you must request
+out for trademark usage if you wish to use “MAME” as part of the name
+your derivative work. In general, this means you must request
permission, which requires that you follow the guidelines above.
The version number of any derivative work should reflect the version
-number of the MAME release from which it was was derived.
+number of the MAME release from which it was derived.
V. Official Contact Information
-------------------------------
-For questions regarding the MAME license, trademark, or other usage, go to http://www.mamedev.org/
+
+For questions regarding the MAME license, trademark, or other usage, see
+https://www.mamedev.org/legal.html