[linux-audio-dev] [ANN] Audio* Project Needs a Developer or Two

[Billy Biggs]

Nick (nicktsocanos at charter.net):

> [...]  I am real mellow with this license stuff, I just want to be
> protected, and be able to express myself without worrying about legal
> issues. There are people with nothing else to do but be d***s and find
> you out and sue you because they don't want you to be free and express
> yourself. They want to take away your freedoms.  Gotta fight them!

  Nick,

  I don't think anyone will protest if I say that the open source
development community is always very happy to see more people release
code under a free license.  And of course, you are free to choose
whatever license you wish when releasing your software.

  That said, I have two recommendations.  First, if you choose to
release under the GNU GPL, read and understand it, do not assume what it
means.  The GPL was written in a very clear language for programmers to
be able to understand, and you should have no problems.  If you instead
use the GPL and assume it says things it doesn't, and state conflicting
opinions about it in public, you may confuse developers who wish to use
your code in their applications, or distributions that wish to ship your
programs.  Other developers know the GPL and know what their rights are,
and these are very specific, and we rely on this when deciding what code
we can use in our own projects.

  My second recommendation is that you carefully read the licenses of
code that you use, such as the PortAudio libraries or the Jack
libraries.  When other developers release code, they wish their licenses
to be respected, and they often take this very seriously.  It's ok for
you to choose whatever license you want for your code, but if your code
depends on a library released under the GPL, this places certain
restrictions on the licensing of your application.  It is important to
recognize this and respect it.

  Finally, in multiple posts you have asked about whether releasing
under the GPL means that users cannot make commercial music.  This is
definitely not the case, for example, you can use the gcc compiler to
compile commercial programs.  Again though, I recommend you read the
license.  You've been very clear that you are "real mellow with this
license stuff", and while I know you mean well, I think you should sit
down, read the licenses, and make sure you're at least respecting those
of the code you depend on, and letting others know how they can use your
code.

  Hope that helps,
  -Billy