Devs can I get some clarification on selling RetroPie?

AkumaMax

I mean look o get it tons of people sell RetroPie system with or without ROMs but they all have RetroPie on them. But when it goes on a website like Retroflag to host worldwide then that brings it to a whole new level imo

herb_fargus

@AkumaMax https://retropie.org.uk/about/legal/

Our legal page is pretty clear.

Greedy scumbags will be greedy scumbags

AkumaMax

@herb_fargus Thanks for the reply and sorry for not seeing it sooner. Unfortunately this has costed me my Seat as the Head admin on the Retropie Facebook Group....Any chance you guys need some help over here? I've been the Admin of that group for the past 2 years. I really wish that there was something more I could do or that you guys could do to stop that because it's publicly displayed on a big web page. Either way, You'll probably seem more of me on here since I'm no longer welcomed on the Retropie Website.

fadeous

I think this needs to be cleared up , as to Why matt was removed and banned from the group.( I am one of the original ADMINS of retropie, myself and the other 2 original Admins all agreed it was best for the group / community to remove matt.... Firstly he was removed for causing trouble with other group communities, antagonizing groups by creating fake facebook accounts for his own agenda, to make money. Secondly matt was banned for not following he rules. He openly admitted to selling LOADED systems with roms in his video, which Suddenly disappeared which we are working on getting the video as i type this. Thirdly matt is looking for any justification for his actions and followers to make up for his short comings in the group . While matt was a great contributor to the group and is a great guy, his actions over the past months is what ultimately determined his removal. We hold Strict Rules in the Retropie Group, and as an admin , These rules do not only apply to the Retropie group but to every group within the entirety of the community . being an admin means upholding respect to everyone within the group , as well as respecting other groups, I understand there are fine lines to what certain groups do. The bottom line is You have to abide by what you PREACH, currently this is Matts Life and the way he makes money by selling modifications, Apparently another group was listed on a Major Page for an item and matt was not which set all of this in motion , He is motivated By his own agenda , and should not be allowed to join any communities, I have had to deal with numerous situations involving matt with spamming to sell his items. This is Not tolerated Among the Retropie Group as well as groups we Support. Feel Free to Reach me personally for any other information . We respect Retropie development and all the communities involved

fadeous

@herb_fargus @AkumaMax

m2306

Seriously, can we please not have your divorce drama here. Afaik the Retropie group on fb is not official in any way (correct me if I’m wrong) and thus misleading in itself even without any of your whining about who’s selling what. The only positive outcome of the various fb groups about retropie is providing people who can’t read documentation with a platform to ask the same questions over and over.

sirhenrythe5th

full ack @m2306!
I know this FB-Group very well, it is a typical US-Group where people talk to 99% about premade images, supreme-hyper-ultra-builder-crews and a few questions concerning building arcade cabinets.
So it has nothing to do with the high-professionell philosophy of THIS Forum here!!

I also think that we dont need this kind of soap opera here.

matchaman

The policy is clear, you don't sell RetroPie even as freebie with hardware. Feel free to sell complete kits with cases, mini cabinets, whatever you want but without software.

You may also include a detailed page (or even a book including breathing instructions) of how to install RetroPie from the official website, that's completely fine... as long as it doesn't contain links to ROMs of course.

Aceisback

So is there or is there not an issue obtaining Retropie via this site "https://www.patreon.com/supremeteam/overview"???

I have refused to support these sites due to the questionable distribution. The original post was never really clarified.

I have seen the drama that has been going on, and it will probably continue without some form of clarification to at least get some closure so both sides can just move on. I have been working with Retropie since it's beginning, and have enjoyed doing my own setups using the base image.

mitu

@Aceisback I think it's pretty simple - if it requires money to get it, then yes - it's a commercial distribution. Donation means you're free to pay without being restricted to what service/goods you get.

I'm not familiar with those builds, but if they include also copyrighted ROMs - that's another no-no as far as legality is concerned.

grant2258

@mitu i would 100% agree with this on gpl/mit ect not sure where non commercial sees donations/patreons/merchandise as part of a collection of a library.

At saying that you guys are very modest and dont push the patreon or donations advertising on people and only receive a modest income. It clear this project is not driven by money. Not many projects can say that. I think that why this is one of them projects that has good support happy devs happy users = helpful environment

herb_fargus

@grant2258 we've had countless direct messages, emails, etc. Offering for partnerships, royalties, ad revenue etc.

We just want to make something cool and have fun. Money makes it stupid.

Aceisback

@herb_fargus
Thanks for the reply, I totally agree with you which is why this is somewhat in a gray area. As I said, I have seen the drama, it is hard to understand without really knowing if it is ok or not.

That site does offer versions not available to the public for the two higher tiers which I think is what is causing the issue. They claim to watermark the images so as to be able to identify them if leaked to the general public which makes no sense if it was available for free to all anyway.
Anyway, I don't and will not pay anything for Retropie. Using the base image is easy, and I have found that the biggest problem is people do not want to invest a little time to learn and build on a base image, yet they want support from others when the image does not work correctly.
It is sad that people try to act like they are not selling retropie when in reality, retropie is the only item they are offering and asking for Patreon support, and as far as I know it comes with roms, but I cannot say as I do not have the image. I guess it is just the nature of the beast...