[linux-audio-dev] Re: linuxaudio.org

[Fred Gleason]

On Tuesday 13 January 2004 18:09, Marek Peteraj and Daniel James 
<daniel at linuxaudio.org> wrote:
> > I hope we can stop this  childish attitude and  actually get some work
> > done (this is usually the moment when people start to disappear).
>
> So keeping such projects confidential until "ready", and not accepting a
> community place although it's been here from 1997 or so isn't childish?


WHOA!  Down boys, down...  :)

First, for the innocent bystanders to this thread, the discussion is about the 
following:

	http://www.linuxaudio.org/en

It looks to be an interesting approach.  As I understand it, consortia in the 
past have had two primary reasons for being:

1)   LICENSING -- It's fairly common for organizations in a consortium to 
cross-license the rights to various technologies to each other.  While, as 
Open Source / Libre developers, *code* licensing is is basically a done deal, 
the same can not be said for issues of *patent* licensing.  While the 
LinuxAudio.org policy does not go so far as to actually cross-license patents 
between members, I think it does seek to provide some sort of framework in 
which to mediate disputes over such matters independently of lawyers and the 
legal system, particularly in the area of reverse engineering.  See Policy 
Point #6.  As such, I think that is a potentially valuable benefit of 
membership.

2)  ANTI-TRUST -- Such "open to all" consortia/trade groups have also 
traditionally been employed as a platform for discussion and implementation 
of industry-wide initiatives that could otherwise be enjoined by anti-trust 
law.  I believe that this aspect was throughly discussed here a few months 
back in the thread concerning the MMA.

That said, I do sense a little bit of undue haste in the launch of this 
organization.  I only became aware of it myself about a week ago, at which 
time active debate concerning some of the core Policy Points was still going 
on, debate that resulted in significant change to the wording of at least one 
of those points.  I think that for an initiative of this sort to succeed, 
community consensus -- from both commercial companies *and* part time 
developers -- is key.  LAD would indeed seem to be one of the natural fora in 
which to seek this consensus.

Cheers!


|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Frederick F. Gleason, Jr. | Director of Broadcast Software Development  |
|                           |             Salem Radio Labs                |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten  |
|  your aim.                                                              |
|                                          -- George Santayana            |
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