Grabbing mappings off the forum, with no review and often without consent, is how we got to the current messy state of mappings in Mixxx. One user saying the mapping works is a low bar. Of course testing the functioning of the mapping with the controller would be ideal, but that's not an excuse for not bothering to review it at all. I don't know why the bar has been set so much lower for mappings than C++ code. All that is needed to review a mapping is a written description of how it works and a picture (or ideally multiple pictures) of the controller.
None of us are lawyers, so we should not be making decisions about a legal grey area. I think the legally clearest and safest situation would be to require mappings to be licensed under the GPLv2 or later and have mapping authors sign the agreement. I don't really see any good reason not to do this. Why should mappings be separate from the rest of Mixxx? The more, high quality mappings are included in Mixxx, the better users' experiences with Mixxx will be. The author of that mapping did not ask for it to be included in Mixxx. When I was overhauling the wiki, I remember seeing this happen on some old forum threads too. The legality of this is questionable. I could go through the forum threads for old mappings and make a list of mappings for which this happened. I suggest we ask a lawyer what to do about these. The Software Freedom Law Center would probably advise us pro bono. Considering that these mappings are mostly for old discontinued controllers and weren't reviewed, I would not be opposed to removing them from Mixxx unless the author submits a pull request. On 11/19/2015 12:03 PM, RJ Ryan wrote: > I would prefer that we not collect signatures for preset contributors. > The reasons being that it will be hard to disentangle "real copyright > owners of the Mixxx codebase" from "people whose files we are > distributing with Mixxx" if we ever need to in the future. They are > very different in legal standing! > > If the installer is unclear, we should add the text: "All community > presets bundled with the permission of their respective authors. Consult > the preset file for licensing details or EULA." > > > > > On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:11 AM, Owen Williams <owilli...@mixxx.org > <mailto:owilli...@mixxx.org>> wrote: > > > ok I posted the link to the agreement on the forum > > On Thu, 2015-11-19 at 17:05 +0100, Sébastien BLAISOT wrote: > > > > > > from a phylosophical point of vue, the presets are bundled inside our > > packages/installers and the licence agremment attached to that > > package/installer doesn't make any difference between mapping and > core > > code IIRC. > > > > So making contributors sign the agreement doesn't hurt and avoid > > future question that can be directed to this bundling. > > > > --- > > Sébastien Blaisot > > > > > > Le 19/11/2015 16:37, Sean M. Pappalardo - D.J. Pegasus a écrit : > > > > > > > > > > > On 11/19/2015 07:10 AM, Owen Williams wrote: > > > > do we need to get this forum user to sign the contributor > > > > agreement? > > > > Controller stuff is always hazy for me > > > > > > The main reason for that agreement is to allow us to make license > > > changes to the source code if needed without having to track down > > > every > > > past developer to get their permission. Since controller > presets are > > > sort of "at arm's length" (not compiled in, just distributed with > > > the > > > application,) they can have their own licenses. So we really just > > > need > > > permission to distribute them with the application, since if we > ever > > > change the application's license, it wouldn't necessarily apply to > > > the > > > controller presets themselves. > > > > > > That said, it wouldn't hurt to have preset writers sign the > > > agreement > > > because it would avoid any future confusion. It's just not > required. > > > > > > IANAL so correct me if any of this is wrong. > > > > > > Sincerely, > > > Sean M. Pappalardo > > > "D.J. Pegasus" > > > Mixxx Developer - Controller Specialist > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Get Mixxx, the #1 Free MP3 DJ Mixing software Today > > > http://mixxx.org > > > > > > > > > Mixxx-devel mailing list > > > Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > <mailto:Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> > > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mixxx-devel > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > > Get Mixxx, the #1 Free MP3 DJ Mixing software Today > > http://mixxx.org > > > > > > Mixxx-devel mailing list > > Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > <mailto:Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mixxx-devel > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Get Mixxx, the #1 Free MP3 DJ Mixing software Today > http://mixxx.org > > > Mixxx-devel mailing list > Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > <mailto:Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mixxx-devel > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Get Mixxx, the #1 Free MP3 DJ Mixing software Today > http://mixxx.org > > > Mixxx-devel mailing list > Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mixxx-devel > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Get Mixxx, the #1 Free MP3 DJ Mixing software Today http://mixxx.org Mixxx-devel mailing list Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mixxx-devel
