[LAD] GPL Violation Alert! - Sorry if this is a duplicate

Michael Fisher mfisher31 at gmail.com
Mon Aug 3 20:29:48 UTC 2009


The following is a copied email I previously sent to Tom Szilagyi....

On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 11:13 PM, Michael Fisher<mfisher31 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Tom!
>
> I just recently purchased a software item called 'The Beat Thang'  . 
> You can
> find it at www.beatkangz.com.  I am running MacOSX Leopard.  After
> installing their software and low and behold in my
> '/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/' folder appeared a subfolder named 'LADSPA' .
> hmmmm... I should probably tell you that I mostly use linux for audio
> recording so I am familiar with ladspa, especially your plugins (very 
> nice).
>  Anyway.  These guys are distributing binaries of the following ladspa
> plugins:
>
>   * tap_chorusflanger
>   * tap_echo
>   * tap_echo
>   * tap_pitch
>   * tap_reflector
>   * tap_vibrato
>
> There are other ladspa plugins too.  See attached screenshot.  They 
> are not
> giving credit, providing source, anything really required of them from 
> the
> GPL as far as I can tell.  I thought you might want to know about 
> this.  It
> really bothers me though because I personally stand for the GPL and think
> that folks who use GPL'd software should abide by the rules.
>
> I'm pretty sure their installer is responsible for 'installing' the 
> plugins
> because I can erase the LADSPA folder, then reinstall the Virtual Beat 
> Thang
> and magically the LADSPA folder reappears.
>
> There is no mention for credit to you guys (Linux Audio Developers) on 
> the
> Beat Kangz website either.
>
> Also, when I run their program from the terminal it outputs to stdout 
> that
> indeed these ladspa plugins are being loaded.  It kind of makes me wonder
> what other open source software they are using and perhaps linking
> statically to libraries and what not.
>
> -Mike
Tom Szilagyi wrote:
> Thanks for reporting this.
>
> I notice in the screenshot that there are other LADSPA plugins there
> (vinyl by Steve Harris; the CMT plugins; AFAIK all others are also
> GPL'd LADSPA).
>
> I would ask you to write a similar mail to the LAD mailing list with
> some more provocative subject ("GPL violation alert" or something like
> that) so everyone knows about this. Then together we can write a
> letter to Beat Kang asking that they abide by the GPL, or remove GPL
> from their stuff.
>
> Lets be clear: other than publicity, we don't really have a weapon
> against them. Legal action is probably out of scope for us, so in case
> they don't follow what we ask for (which is likely since I'm sure they
> knowingly violated the GPL in the first place) humiliating them as
> publicly as we can may be the best we can do.
>
> FSF or EFF may be able to help us with this (I'm sure there is at
> least one organisation dedicated to protecting the GPL, but I'm not
> sure).
>
> Tom
No problem.  It's not really fair to put a 'skin' around free software,
call it your own, and then sell it.  The only thing I ask is that my
name be left out of the letter that may be written to them.  The reason
is, that I personally know one of the staff members at the Beat Kangz. I 
just would hate to have it cause any trouble.  My friend personally
doesn't have anything to do with this violation, he just works for
them.  I hope that isn't a problem with you.

-Mike




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