[linux-audio-dev] fst, VST 2.0, kontakt

[Lars Luthman]

On Sat, 2006-07-01 at 23:53 +0700, Patrick Shirkey wrote:
> Dave Robillard wrote:
> > On Sat, 2006-07-01 at 17:43 +0200, Luis Garrido wrote:
> >>> LinuxSampler is not free software or open source software.
> >>>
> >> (sigh, must we, really?)
> >>
> >> It depends on who you choose to side with.
> > 
> > Forget "free software" then, I don't mean to start any debate, and
> > there's no "sides" here.  Just that people are talking about writing
> > open source alternatives to things (Kontakt) and referring to
> > LinuxSampler as the project to do so, so it should be pointed out so
> > people aren't misled.
> > 
> > LinuxSampler is not open source.
> > 
> 
> It's veeeery close though.
> 
> It's just using a modified GPL License which isn't clearly labelled as 
> such. IANAL but that makes LinuxSampler illegally licensed if someone 
> wanted to make a fuss about it. They call it GPL version 2 or 3 but it 
> has been modified so that nullifies it AFAIK. If they don't fix it and 
> someone does use their software to make a financial gain then it could 
> very easily be argued that the software is licensed as GPL 2 or 3 and 
> that makes it 100% open source.

I don't think so. If the GPL is combined with some other license
agreement or restriction that is not compatible with the GPL, it
automatically cancels itself (see paragraph 7,
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt ) and normal copyright law applies.
Which in most countries means that only the actual copyright owner (if
there is a single one) is allowed to distribute it. 

-- 
Lars Luthman - please encrypt any email sent to me if possible
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