Re: [linux-audio-dev] Re: lawsuit

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Re: lawsuit
From: Kevin Conder (kconder_AT_interaccess.com)
Date: Thu Sep 13 2001 - 18:49:27 EEST


On Thu, 13 Sep 2001, Racz, Mate wrote:

> i'm planning my sequencer-synthesizer-multitracker stuff
> since cca 2 years,

        What's CCA?

> if i make a GPLed stuff with the features of ProTools,
> Cubase and Reaktor3, will Digidesign, Steinberg and NI
> sue me for ripping their ideas?

        Please don't waste your time re-implementing existing technology.
You have a clean slate, do it better. Digidesign, Steinberg, NI, et al.
may (or may not) have patents but they don't have a monopoly on good
ideas.

        Established commercial software companies have a base of legacy
software that they have to support. They also have a management structure
that will try to dampen any innovation that wouldn't be immediately
profitable. Therefore, they release incremental improvements and hype them
to death. OTOH, Open Source programmers have more room to experiment.

        Why don't you add some new and fun features instead? Here are some
ideas for you to experiment with: send control messages over a network,
convert movements captured by a webcam into control messages, implement a
3D interface with OpenGL, make a softsynth with a more unusual form of
synthesis: formant, granular, etc.

> if so, how can i avoid it? just call every feature
> somehow else than the original?

        Rather than duplicating a commercial program feature by feature,
Why don't you find some actual users (esp. non-programmers) and ask them
what they *really* want? Don't be satisfied with answers about how they
currently use existing commercial programs. Find out what they dream of
doing and try to develop a solution that actually meets those needs.

-- kevin at kevindumpscore dot com


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