On 10-10-2014 21:14, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
Hello all,
Today I got an email of a user asking me to help him make a plugin
called 'zitaretuner' work. I never wrote such a plugin, and I didn't
even know it existed. So I can't help this user.
Of course this made me curious, and I managed to get a copy of
the source code of this lv2 plugin. And I wasn't very amused.
As expected it's based on zita-at1, and again a complete disaster.
The DSP code of zita-at1 is written as a neat self-contained C++
class with a very clean interface, and this is done explicitly to
make it re-usable.
But instead of re-using it, the author of the plugin decided to
rewrite it in C, and combine it in the same source file with parts
of libzitaresampler (instead of using that as a library as it is
meant to), and with whatever is required to turn it into an lv2.
The whole thing is just a single source file.
The same author (who is know only as 'jg') didn't bother to add
a decent GUI, relying on the plugin host to create one. That means
for example that the note selection buttons (which also double as
'current note' indicators in zita-at1), are replaced by faders.
Only $GOD knows what they are supposed to control.
And as a final topping on the cake, that whole crappy thing is
presented as if I were the author of it all. No mention at all
that things have been modified, and by whom or why. This alone
is a clear violation of the license under which zita-at1 was
released. And whoever did it doesn't even have the courage to
identify him/herself.
I've complained about this sort of thing before, and this time
I'm really pissed. So let one thing be clear: I will never again
release any code under a license that allows this sort of thing
to happen.
I can understand you are very angry about this. Does GPL
really allow someone to use someone else's GPL code,
release it, and pretend everything was written by the original
person?