LinuxSampler license, was Re: [linux-audio-dev] fst, VST 2.0, kontakt

[Patrick Shirkey]

Paul Davis wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-07-03 at 02:26 +0700, Patrick Shirkey wrote:
>> If they really want to get people to give money then they should just 
>> make it so that you have to pay or contribute code/time for a while to 
>> get access to the newest downloads from their site. Keep the stable 
>> version far enough behind the development version that people will pay 
>> to get the newest code base.
> 
> its really rather amusing to see people speculating on what the
> developers of LS could or could not do, when the actual relevant
> "encounter" with "commercial interests" has *already* happened. it did
> not go well. it can be tempting to imagine that we understand the
> motivations of commercial organizations and can therefore offer them
> appropriate carrots. don't be so confident of this. both the LS
> developers and myself are under the terms of an NDA, so it is not
> possible to discuss with any relevant detail precisely what happened.
> but it was nasty, it was unpleasant and as i've said before, it would be
> better for people to not make so many assumptions about their ability to
> guess at what might or might happen when a commercial company shows
> interest in a tool like LS.
> 

Sorry Paul,

You have mentioned this in the past. I didn't mean to drag up those 
memories. It completely slipped my mind that something funky had gone on 
with LS.

On saying that though it really is a bummer that the NDA prevents 
certain people from discussing the valuable knowledge learned from that 
encounter.

It's still entirely legal for others to speculate though... If we ask 
questions and you don't answer then maybe that's legal too...

It seems to me that some company tried to use the work done by the LS 
team without giving anything/much in return. The strange appearance of 
the modification to the GPL in the LS README seems like a direct 
response to the situation that occured when things didn't work out for 
the LS team with regards to this mystery company.

History provides plenty of evidence of companies/business people taking, 
using and abusing and not giving in return. It seems strange that the LS 
team would choose to work under the GPL and then be surprised if someone 
tried to take advantage of them. However it is perfectly reasonable for 
that to have severe emotional impact when so much hard work is 
effectively "stolen" by greedy "business" people.

It reminds me of the 6 years I have spent working in Asia. Everything I 
have done for free is ripped off by others who can't come up with their 
own ideas. Now I *only* do things for fun or money up front.

Life is too damn short to let the bastards of this world abuse my 
time/energy/motivation.

Hence why I enjoy working with Linux Audio. Where the real bastards are 
few and far between.

Cheers.

-- 
Patrick Shirkey - Boost Hardware Ltd.
Http://www.boosthardware.com
Http://lau.linuxaudio.org - The Linux Audio Users guide
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"Anything your mind can see you can manifest physically, then it will 
become reality" - Macka B