[linux-audio-user] Linux Sampler

[Lars Luthman]

On Thu, 2005-12-08 at 12:00 +0100, Peder Hedlund wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, Pete Leigh wrote:
> 
> > But if he's accepted the LS license being talked about, it's not the
> > GPL, it's the GPL plus an exception disallowing commercial use.
> > A different beast.
> 
>  What I was caught up with was §6 of the GPL where it says
>  "You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise
>  of the rights granted herein."
>  But apparently this only affects the right to "copy, distribute or
>  modify" the software, not acctually running it.

These terms are for the licensee (you), not the copyright owner (the LS
authors). The copyright owners are allowed to relicense their software
any way they want. If you have a GPL'd copy of LS then it is GPL and no
one can tell you that the terms for your copy have suddenly changed. But
if you download the CVS version, which apparently has this "no
commercial use" restriction, then you are not allowed to use that
version commercially.


>  OTOH this raises the interesting question: what's to stop me from
>  taking the GPL source, modifying it a bit and releasing it as
>  LinuxSamplerXP with no extra restrictions? The source is GPL and
>  according to §6 I have GPL, and only GPL, rights to modify the source
>  and create a derivative work. I then release it as "pure" GLP.

You are not a copyright owner, so you can not release the software under
another license. And since the actual license is GPL + the
non-commercial "exception", that extract from §6 could be taken to mean
that you are not allowed to impose any restrictions other than the one
in the GPL + the exception. 

_Or_ it could be taken to mean that you are not allowed to impose any
further restrictions other than the ones in the pure GPL, in which case
you are not allowed to redistribute LS at all since redistributing it
under the pure GPL would give other people additional rights (using it
commercially), which you can not give them since you are not the
copyright owner. From §7: "If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy
simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other
pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the
Program at all."

This is why I said it was confusing...


-- 
Lars Luthman
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