linuxaudio.org

On Wed, 2005-12-07 at 14:04 -0800, Mark Knecht wrote:

quoted text
> LinuxSampler is a good program but has recently considered straying

> from the Open Source model. Please read the License Agreement included in

> the CVS version for more info. For these reasons I've ceased using it. My

> comments are probably a bit dated these days as I've not tried or even

> paid attention to the program in a few months.

Their CVS server isn't responding, so I can't see the whole License

Agreement. But I see this on the web page:
  LinuxSampler is licensed under the GNU GPL license with the exception=20

  that COMMERCIAL USE of the souce code, libraries and applications is

  NOT ALLOWED without prior written permission by the LinuxSampler=20

  authors. If you have questions on the subject please contact us.
This is pretty nasty - if I interpret it correctly, it means that

LinuxSampler is no longer free software (at least not as defined by the

FSF, http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html ) and not even freeware,

since a producer making commercial music would have to pay to use it.
The LinuxSampler hackers are of course free to license their code any

way they want, but I wish people who add this kind of exceptions to the

GPL would call it something else instead of "GNU GPL with exception

foo". That will just confuse people when the license is uncompatible

with the GPL.
--=20

Lars Luthman

PGP key:     http://www.d.kth.se/~d00-llu/pgp_key.php

Fingerprint: FCA7 C790 19B9 322D EB7A  E1B3 4371 4650 04C7 7E2E