MiSTer FPGA Forum

I was looking at some MAME stuff online and noticed "MAME © Nicola Salmoria and the MAME team" all over the place. Is MiSTer something that could or should be copyright/trademarked?

This topic became interesting to me after I purchased a "MiSTer" JAMMA adapter that for all intents and purposes isn't compatible with the official MiSTer and is actually designed for use with their proprietary off-shoot that uses the MiSTer name and logo as though it were the real thing, but in my opinion, actually represents something which amounts to not much more than a knock-off product.

I consider myself reasonably well-educated in the areas of technology, and I was totally duped into buying this product...I see a potentially very real issue brewing if more and more knock-off, incompatible products flood the market that aren't immediately compatible with the official branch. This could end up muddying the waters for everybody and has potential to be a mess.

I love the open source aspect of the project and hope it remains that way forever, but who knows what the future holds. With AMD getting into FPGA production, we might see custom ITX boards with FPGA sockets and MiSTer could become a major platform in its own right using its framework to simulate all kind of more modern systems, GPUs and systems that have even yet to be imagined.

Perhaps I'm nuts for even thinking of such things and maybe I deserve to be chastised; perhaps in-keeping with the open source ethos, people should be able to do what they like.

Another thing that spurred on these thoughts was the other topic from today: "What is the purpose of MiSTer?" [viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2349] Another related question I have is: "What is MiSTer?" Is it a hardware platform? A software platform? A framework only?

I'd love to hear what other people think.

The work is already copyrighted. That happens by default and requires no action by the rights holder. The open source nature of the license makes derivative works very easy to do legally. It grants permissions that are purposefully much wider than the default. It was intended to do that even. The ecosystem should weed out the bad apples in this scenario.

Trademarking the MiSTer would cost serious money and requires the holder of the mark to protect it actively (read: hire lawyers) That's not something I'd want to be doing if this were my project but it does happen with larger projects and for mostly the reason you mention. Maybe Sorgelig could elaborate on this. It is, however, not a trivial or cheap thing to do.

chanunnaki wrote: ↑Thu Apr 01, 2021 8:06 pm I see a potentially very real issue brewing if more and more knock-off, incompatible products flood the market that aren't immediately compatible with the official branch. This could end up muddying the waters for everybody and has potential to be a mess.

MiSTer is a project, not a product. That may not be obvious for most people but technically anybody is free to build upon it.

Most official MiSTer discussions channels (including this forum, FB, Discord) are pretty vocal about the potential issues if you buy alternate hardware. Trademarking or copyrighting won't prevent China knock-offs either, so it is a waste of time (MAME is a bit of a different case because it's pure software and easy to port to lots of hardware platforms).

Yes, some people may get burned by these variants, but then they should make some noise and inform others so the sellers have to at least acknowledge their setup is not compatible to the main official branch (some already do this quite clearly).

@Bas said pretty much everything already.

Protecting MiSTer from incompatible knock-offs is what community should do. Speak about it loudly, don't buy that commercial crap.

Registered trademark (the one with the ® symbol) costs serious money, like registered copyright. Unregistered trademark (the one with the ™ symbol) costs nothing, like unregistered copyright. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unregistered_trademark

Trademarks need to be protected globally. That costs very serious money and effort. The US isn't the only jurisdiction, even if international treaties did harmonize things somewhat.

Bas wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 1:06 pm Trademarks need to be protected globally. That costs very serious money and effort. The US isn't the only jurisdiction, even if international treaties did harmonize things somewhat.

Yes, this is an excellent point. If you build precedent of not actively defending your trademark you can lose it in a court challenge. This is why Stone Brewing Co. sued a local brewery owned by a couple friends that used to be called Kettle and Stone Brewing. It isn't because they wanted to sue the little guys, it's because they have an obligation to protect their trademark or else they set a precedent that can be used against them in future legal battles where there is more flagrant trademark infringement.

To be fair, I have no issues supporting hardware alternatives if it's quality. I would actually be hyped for a better integrated MiSTer board that could be used in portable devices. Having alternatives also means not relying on a single point of failure as far as supplies go.