Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> Hi David, Daniel, Quentin and list :)
>
> if I'm not mistaken you David are author for a linux magazine. Someone 
> is using the source code of LMMS to make money and it seems to be 
> legal and it might be an advantage to spread this software, anyhow, I 
> do feel bad with this situation. I'm not a user of LMMS, but I know 
> that LMMS is one of the really good FLOSS projects, it fits to the 
> needs of many musicians.
>
> There is something called 'Beatmachine', 
> http://www.beatmachinepro.com/, and as I have written before, there 
> seems to be nothing criminal with this, but if someone can sell it, it 
> seems to be an application that is wanted by users and I guess it 
> would be fair to donate the original coders too.
>
>

Greetings,

I've read the threads regarding this issue, and I must say that the 
BeatMachine guy has at least indicated his willingness to abide by the 
GPL and to return some of his profits to the LMMS community. So far he 
claims he's made $0.00US, though of course we have no way to check his 
receipts. Based upon his willingness to correspond with his critics and 
detractors I'm willing to cut him some slack.

He's clear about his intended target market, i.e. Windows-based 
hobbyists who aren't seriously into music creation but who want to have 
fun making beats and groove patterns. Apparently he adds some value to 
the package by including some custom sample sets, but I have not 
verified this yet.

Personally I find it a bit reprehensible that the BeatMachine Web site 
doesn't mention LMMS nor does it indicate that the source code is 
available (not that it would matter to the intended market). While the 
term "rip-off" quickly comes to mind it still seems that the packager is 
abiding by the terms of the GPL, at least he claims to be doing so in 
correspondence. IMO the LMMS team should monitor the BeatMachine site 
and advise the maintainer of improprieties.

Best,

dp

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