[linux-audio-dev] License for sounds

[Jens M Andreasen]

Hi David!

1) Usually the demo sounds included with synthesizers are considered
absolute freeware. Their purpose is to demonstrate that this synthesizer
can do any sound just as well, or even better than the competition.
Their purpose is to convince the prospective buyer that the light at the
end of the tunnel is not (entirely) electric, and they should hand over
their hard earned cash right away.

2) With a few tweeks, an otherwise very serious string quartet can be
turned into something extremely silly, which you would probably not like
to have coauthored.

3) Although commercial tunes are played 24/7 on radio stations, you will
not be able to recognize your own sounds, except in the case when they
are used unaltered with no postprocessing (which makes the discussion of
"derived work" moot.) That is to say: If it is not controlable, don't
bother making any rules.

cheers // Jens M Andreasen


On ons, 2004-01-14 at 11:31, David Olofson wrote:
> I'm trying to figure out what license to use for the demo sounds and 
> songs that come with Audiality. I don't think the songs are of much 
> interest beyond demonstrating the engine, so I'll probably just ask 
> that people don't use them in their projects without permission.
> 
> However, the sounds (or rather, the scripts that render them) are 
> intended to be usable in about the same way as the rest of Audiality. 
> That is, as is or modified, in Free/Open Source, freeware and 
> commercial projects. No royalties, no advertising clause or anything.
> 
> Here's the problem: I'd like derived sounds to remain open source, but 
> I'm not sure it makes sense to require it, like the LGPL does. The 
> X11 license might be more sensible. What do you think?
> 
> 
> //David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate
> 
> .- Audiality -----------------------------------------------.
> |  Free/Open Source audio engine for games and multimedia.  |
> | MIDI, modular synthesis, real time effects, scripting,... |
> `-----------------------------------> http://audiality.org -'
>    --- http://olofson.net --- http://www.reologica.se ---
> 
>