Editing Multi Emulator Super System (section)

== License ==
{{see also|MAME#License}}

MESS was distributed under the [[MAME#License|MAME Licence]], which allowed for the redistribution of [[binary file]]s and [[source code]], either modified or unmodified, but disallowed selling MESS or using it commercially.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.mess.org/license |title= MESS Licence |publisher= The MESS Development Team |access-date= 24 March 2016 |url-status= bot: unknown |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160324182136/http://www.mess.org/license |archive-date= 24 March 2016 }}</ref> The license is similar to other [[copyleft]] licenses in requiring that rights and obligations provided in the license must be remain intact when MESS or derivative works are distributed.

In addition to the MESS Licence, The MESS Team required that: "MESS must be distributed only in the original archives. You are not allowed to distribute a modified version, nor to remove and/or add files to the archive. Adding one text file to advertise your web site is tolerated only if your site contributes original material to the emulation scene."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.mess.org/legal.php |title= MESS Legal |publisher= The MESS Development Team |access-date= 4 July 2010 |url-status= bot: unknown |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100704041046/http://www.mess.org/legal.php |archive-date= 4 July 2010 }}</ref> The MAME license required source code be included with versions of MESS that are modified from the original source, while the MESS legal page states that when distributing binary files "you should also distribute the source code. If you can't do that, you must provide a pointer to a place where the source can be obtained."

While MESS was available in both binary and source code forms, the restrictions on commercial exploitation cause it to fall outside of the [[Free Software Foundation|Free Software Foundation's]] definition of [[free software]]. Similarly MESS was not considered to be [[open source software]] if appraised according to the criteria of the [[Open Source Definition]].