I'd like to take a moment and respond to the dribble that has been sent our way in response to this weekend's flurry about our trademark application with regards to MAME. I'd appreciate it if this would be spread to the same websites, blogs, and newsgroups that the unfounded rumors were that resulted in the very juvenile attacks on me personally, and my company.
I have been in communication with one of the original MAME authors, and we are will be working together to ensure that the MAME trademark is assigned to the proper individuals and protect it from commercial exploitation, as was our intent all along. We have even offered to pay for all costs associated with that process.
During the past three days, I have received many personal attacks and insults from several immature individuals that read a simple headline, and then go off on a child like rant about what they think we are doing. This was followed by several denial of service attacks on our corporate resources, phone calls to my office and cell phone.
I received 270 emails in response to this. Most of them were single line insults against me personally. A few were misguided, but well articulated remarks. Even fewer were questions, asking for more information. I took the time to answer each and every message personally, explaining the facts. Many return to email addresses were not valid. Some people refused to listen to my explanation, or didn't care to believe what I told them. A few even apologized for their statements and we started a productive dialog and exchange of ideas.
In summary, what we are doing moving forward is:
Working directly with the original authors to secure the TM assigned in their name and protect the mark from commercial exploitation as expressed in the MAME distribution license
Continuing to work with all major publishers to eliminate all illegal distribution of ROMs.
Working on accelerating the rollout of our iROMs(TM) service to bring ROM distribution to the MAME community, following the music industries success in content distribution. We have put together a business model and later this summer will start to roll out affordable, legal ROM images for personal use on PC's running emulation software. We are working with all of the major publishers to get as much contact as possible, available to the general public.
Continuing to police eBay and the Internet for sites that reference unlicensed games
I think you should drop it and walk away while you still can. You just pissed off every last customer and potential customer.
At this point you can still let them MAME devs have the trademark. But you little holy war on eBay and against ROM sites while conitnue to cause you problems as long as you pursue it.
Mr. Foley,
What part of you trademarking someone elses work is rumor? What part is dribble? Why are you having ebay close down your competitors auctions when they are using legal roms? WHY are you trying to trademark something that is not yours?
It's easy to see you are trying to use this as a "commercial" for your so-called business model. The truth of the matter is that ROMS are available legally for prices much cheaper than you would like to charge. It isn't anyones fault but yours that your "Ultra
I personally will not be participating in iROMs, if and when it comes to light, due to the fact that it will be supporting someone who is inconciderate and immoral. You claim to be doing this out of morals, yet you yourself are no better, and in some cases worse than who you say are the problem. There have been many legal auctions shut down by yourself, when at this point you do not retain the trademark of MAME nor own the copyright of any ROMs to properly due such actions.
Open Letter to the Slashdot / MAME Community (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Open Letter to the Slashdot / MAME Community (Score:1)
At this point you can still let them MAME devs have the trademark. But you little holy war on eBay and against ROM sites while conitnue to cause you problems as long as you pursue it.
Have you learned NOTHING from the RIAA?!?
Re: Your poor business ethics (Score:1)
Re:Open Letter to the Slashdot / MAME Community (Score:1)