RetroPie is GPL licensed, so am I legally entitled to sell copies of it?

dankcushions

@iek said in RetroPie is GPL licensed, so am I legally entitled to sell copies of it?:

I don't agree with the two "topics", but rather than continue arguing, maybe we can all take a different perspective...

Open source principles include the belief that others should be able to take code they contributed nothing to and commercialise it. We see commercialisation as a positive and a significant contribution in itself. That's a core part of the ideology. Your rejection of that principle is putting us at odds.

to be clear, i don't reject the principle. the code I produce is under the GPL license (when that's under my control). the retropie script is under the GPL license.

BuZz

I am tired of this - I have better things to do with my time.

@iek I do not wish to remove the old account, as doing so means posts get removed or need to be reassigned to a guest user which would break the discussion. Usually creating a new account after being banned would get your new account banned btw - and I would have done that if I had noticed earlier. I'm willing to leave your new account active but that's as much as I'm going to do.

BTW @hex does not represent RetroPie. So him editing Wikipedia has nothing to do with the RetroPie project. @Hex may want to keep this in mind when posting things like "We have had these problems before". No - actually, it's really just me that has to deal with all the legal/licensing problems surrounding RetroPie.

@markwkidd If you are unable to work out why someone saying "goodbye", then changing their user profile page to have a go at the project might lead to a ban then you are going to struggle here too. I also don't need to justify my actions to you.

Using this forum is not some right, nor is the forum a bastion of free speech where anything goes. It's a private forum that we host and run for the RetroPie project.

If anyone has a problem with that, I would recommend they go elsewhere.

SgtJimmyRustles

@buzz He probably would have been fine selling the hardware, as long as he didn't try to bundle the software. Ah well. Stuff like this disappoints me to see.

iek

On second thoughts, I'll just leave. I don't need this [...] either.

BuZz

@iek and that language is not welcome here either.

obsidianspider

Am I the only one who finds it ridiculous that people are upset that they are not allowed to make money based on the work of others with no effort of their own?

jonnykesh

@obsidianspider No, you're not. The entitlement is sickening.

meleu

I'm not a lawyer nor a specialist on open-source definitions, etc. But trying to put on a simpler way I think all this trouble would be avoided if the OP knew that regular users of this forum are people that like to:

play old games
‎(learn to) tinker
(learn to) write some code
help newcomers to do any of the things above
‎keep away anything that can disturb us to do the things above

Example of things that can disturb us to do the things above:

newcomers that just want to plug'n'play and don't want to solve the issues they face. This usually happens with those who bought a "retrogaming kit" with RetroPie installed and, as a customer right, want that everything just works.
‎Emulator's authors asking RetroPie to not use their work. This can happen if they don't want their work comercialized and they see RetroPie being sold on the web.
‎Some big company accusing this project/forum of sharing copyrighted material and trying to shut it down.

jonnykesh

@meleu 100% correct. Maybe the regulars can come across a bit "precious" sometimes (myself included!). It's because we care.
As Buzz said, this is NOT a public forum. This is a forum run to benefit RetroPie and its' legitimate users. If you don't agree then please go elsewhere.

Hex

I think we should have a secret question on the signup sheet asking where you got the retropie image from. If they say website then allow signup else show warning message. simple as that.

jonnykesh

@hex Like, tell me Herb's mother's maiden name and Buzz's first pet's name?
I think it's fairly obvious after a few questions who is running what image. If not from their initial post.

BuZz

@jonnykesh Obviously my first Pet was a Commodore :-)

(Not true at all. They cost a fortune and I'm not that old)

jonnykesh

@buzz My first Commodore was a C16. I know...
They do / did cost a fortune and yeah, you're old enough.

SgtJimmyRustles

@buzz

I wish I owned a Commodore 64. No, better yet, an amiga.

hooperre

This seems like another appropriate time to thank @BuZz and @herb_fargus for all their hard work and for @dankcushions for keeping these forums free of disparaging banter.

Retropie (and its forums) are a place where I can escape to the simpler times and also continue working on an enjoyable hobby.

Cheers, boys and thanks.

MegaTimX

It's frustrating because there are so many scammers on ebay who use RecalBox and RetroPie. On top of that they use fake Samsung SD cards and even images including roms. They smack it into a Rpi3 case and sell it.
People are so stupid that they will think that they are getting a good deal by buying an Rpi3 system over spending the extra $30 for an Odroid Xu4 system.
Personally, I understand that the real heroes are the programmers who write RecallBox/RetroPie and do not earn a penny.
But at the same time Nintendo is the worst of all for selling people a crap system with only a few games with a mini NES/SNES case at almost total profit.

BobHarris

@megatimx Nintendo is bound by copyrights. They can't sell a system with all the games because they could never sell it at a profit.
Because of copyrights/lack of interest some of my favorite games will never again see the light of day through official channels. Thankfully we all have Retropie to keep all of our most cherished gaming memories alive. :-)

Ranma

@megatimx said in RetroPie is GPL licensed, so am I legally entitled to sell copies of it?:

People are so stupid that they will think that they are getting a good deal by buying an Rpi3 system over spending the extra $30 for an Odroid Xu4 system.

Wait, what?

If someone was buying a new system I'd still recommend the Pi every time. I've looked into these alternative boards, and while a lot of them look much better on paper, fundamentally to the end user they offer little to no benefit imho, as far as Retropie is concerned.

Though I agree with the principle that folks should not under any circumstances be buying so-called "ready to go" packages from eBay. At all.

PokeEngineer

@obsidianspider said in RetroPie is GPL licensed, so am I legally entitled to sell copies of it?:

Am I the only one who finds it ridiculous that people are upset that they are not allowed to make money based on the work of others with no effort of their own?

I do as well.

MegaTimX

@ranma I built an XU4 system for my first build. While for me, it was absolutely not worth my efforts, since I lost a small amount of money on selling it(and probably put 100+ hours into making it). I didn't include RetroPie with it, for legal reasons. It played N64 and PSP games perfectly when I tested it out though.
Then for Christmas I built my father and my brother RPi3B systems. For my father's system I wanted to include the PSP Syphon Filter games because he loved the series on PSX. The RPi3 even overclocked could not play the games, not even close. I spent a lot of time trying to tweak the settings.
Personally, for me, being able to flawlessly play most N64 games and most PSP games, and some Dreamcast games would be worth the extra $30 for the system.
Also, I have been overclocking all of my PC CPUs and GPUs since the 90s, but when it comes to emulation systems, at least for me, since I put a lot of work into customizing a real system, I think it should last for decades. If you overclock, your processor is going to die much sooner.
Just look up the specs on the XU4 compared to the RPi3B, the XU4 has twice the ram, higher clock speeds and twice as many cores.