[linux-audio-user] Fervent Software Studio..to go! and GPL issues

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 20:07:11 +0100, Christian Frisson <theremin at free.fr> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I suppose Richard Bown is the head of both Fervent Software and Linux Musician.
> I guess he has suscribed to the LAD mailing-list. I thought the GPL-license
> claimed you had the right to commercialize apps released under its terms if you
> make its modified source code available to anyone. Where am I wrong?
> 
> What is the difference between this case and the "hi-jacked" Audacity versions
> that used to be sold on eBay under another app name?
> 
> Cheers,
> Christian
> 

Someday I'll actually (maybe) read the Gnu license and be able to
answer this question, but the Audacity case (IIRC) required that the
executable version come with some pointers to the source code. I think
he wasn't making it obvious to anyone that Audacity was really Open
Source. He may have also changed the name of the program so that it
really wasn't obvious.

Clearly Fervent  is approaching this in a much more open way, which is great.

I just bought a machine with Linspire on it. (I quickly removed it and
now have PlanetCCRMA on it.) They have an interesting model. $49/year
and you get to use their servers to download stuff. They've collected
together a large library of Open Source and for pay apps. You can buy
stuff directly though them. It's very retail, like Wal Mart over the
net for computer software. Interesting, but not the way I wanted my
kid looking at Linux.

- Mark