Software licenses are are something I *really* don't want to get involved in - I have much better things to do with my time - but I found I was obliged to do so.
It is possible I'm the only person who knows all the following events, as I was the one that instigated them! There is a very good alsa library that would fit in really nicely with Yoshimi, simplifying the code and expanding the options. We can't use it, because it is licensed GPL V3. When this problem cropped up I thought I aught to put down in writing everything I knew. This would appear to be a good place. The first time I saw ZynAddSubFX source files they were licensed as GPL V2. At that time Zyn had a number of very serious problems, and not much was being done about them. Somewhat naively I asked Lars Luthman if he would help, as he had offered a couple of small patches previously. His response was that he would not do any significant work, as he did not agree with the GPL V2 only license. I then contacted Paul, explaining the situation and asking if he would consider a change in the license to V2 or later. I was actually a bit surprised that he immediately agreed. When I next looked at the sources, the licenses on the files had indeed been updated, so I passed this information on. Unfortunately Paul forgot to update the website, but I wasn't especially concerned as it was only the files themselves that really mattered. While developing Yoshimi after the initial fork, Cal queried the license situation. I told him of the conversations I'd had, and passed him a copy of the email I'd got from Paul. Later on, Cal - in good faith - wrote new sources and placed them under GPL V3. This would be quite compatible with V2 or later, but not with V2 strict. What I didn't notice until very much later was that Paul had only updated half of the text in the sources, leaving the actual licence in an ambiguous state. To the best of my knowledge, V3 is not compatible with V2 strict, but V2 or later is. However the *complete* project then becomes downgraded to V2 strict - although the V2 or later sources (such as all the new root/bank code) can independently be freely merged into V3 code. I doubt anyone would actually make an issue of this. However, to safeguard Yoshimi as a whole, I took it upon myself to change Cal's code to V2 or later. I believe it retains the spirit of his wishes, and the only person with standing to object - his daughter - has been totally supportive of the work currently being done on Yoshimi. I still don't know what the true status is of the old Zyn. Code, and I suspect it has now become so tangled that nobody else does either! Finally, I guess we will have to work out some way of dealing with alsa ourselves (and it's far from easy to properly understand). When we do so the sources will be under GPL V2 or later. -- Will J Godfrey http://www.musically.me.uk Say you have a poem and I have a tune. Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Monitor 25 network devices or servers for free with OpManager! OpManager is web-based network management software that monitors network devices and physical & virtual servers, alerts via email & sms for fault. Monitor 25 devices for free with no restriction. Download now http://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/292181274;119417398;o _______________________________________________ Yoshimi-devel mailing list Yoshimi-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/yoshimi-devel
