Re: [linux-audio-user] The Open Music Resource Library - Licensing

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] The Open Music Resource Library - Licensing
From: Frank Barknecht (fbar_AT_footils.org)
Date: Fri Jan 03 2003 - 13:07:14 EET


Hi,
Daniel James wrote:
> fbar wrote
> > All open source software
> > allows selling.
>
> There are licences that restrict or ban selling - the Aladin Ghostscript

I was referring to the Open Source (tm) guidelines, that say in part 1:

   The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the
   software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing
   programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a
   royalty or other fee for such sale.

     Rationale: By constraining the license to require free redistribution,
     we eliminate the temptation to throw away many long-term gains in order
     to make a few short-term sales dollars. If we didn't do this, there
     would be lots of pressure for cooperators to defect.

see http://www.opensource.org

Allowing selling or disallowing it makes a fundamental difference. If I for
example write an open source game that uses loops from the OMRL in its
soundtrack, it could not be part of a distribution like Debian, that many
companies sell on CD.

If I construct a Pd patch to comfortably play those loops, it could not be
part of the AGNULA distribution, if it includes the loops, because someday
AGNULA CD's will get sold.

These are just two simple examples as to what problems the restriction of
selling could lead. I can think of many more. In the end, with this license
OMRL would be just another sampling library, that restricts distribution.

What about encouraging selling and encouraging distribution? The license
could have the viral GNU catch, that copying and reselling of a CD's
contents shall not be restricted by a third party producer. This way, some
enterprise could make and sell CDs with OMRL, but I and anyone would be
allowed to copy those for friends and enemies, if one feels the urge to do
so.

This would be more in the spirit of free software, IMO, and it would indeed
be something new.

Discussion is open.

ciao

-- 
Frank Barknecht 


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