Re: [LAU] Fairlight

On Thu, October 25, 2012 7:47 am, Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 12:38 AM, Patrick Shirkey wrote:
>
>> I'm not the best person to make contact with them directly but that
>> shouldn't stop anyone else from asking them to release their Open Source
>> code if they haven't already done so.
>
> That would be an amazing way to make yet another MOTU.
>

MOTU will have to come round eventually if they want to sell their
hardware to the majority of computer users on the planet. Android accounts
for the largest slice of mobile OS market and over 45% of tablet users.
Android uses ALSA so if MOTU want their cards to work with Android OS they
have to release ALSA drivers at some point.

Anyway this situation is completely different. Fairlight are shipping
products that already use Linux software. They have a legal obligation
under the GPL.

> Out of curiosity, why is it that every time some vendor makes use of
> free software, the first reaction is "hey, release source code"?
>
> Is it the only thing that interests you?
>

No one did anything about Korg or Yamaha for all these years. What makes
you think that it's everyones first reaction?

Look at Groove OS too. Rui and Christian fed back a huge amount of their
code into their existing open source solutions so nobody was upset if
Lionstracs didn't publicly release all their code in a single package.

In this case Fairlight may just not be aware of their explicit legal
obligations. No one knows unless they ask. I don't see any harm if, for
example the Consortium sends a generic letter by email and physical copy
alerting them of their legal obligations and outlining the positive
aspects of doing the "Right Thing" (tm)

If there was any resistance or requirements at any point for the issue to
be escalated to real lawyers then it would be very hard for them to say
they were not aware.

--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd
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