Re: [fluid-dev] Another application using FluidSynth announced

[Matt Giuca]

This issue has come up several times on the mailing list. It might be
helpful to have a statement on the FluidSynth trac page explaining the
project's position on use of the software in the Apple App Store, and
similar restricted environments.

There is already an FAQ question about this:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/fluidsynth/wiki/LicensingFAQ

but it isn't very prominently linked (I found it via searching the
mailing list archives), and it doesn't give a lot of information or
reasoning.

Would it be prudent to:
1. Display a link on the front page titled "Can I use FluidSynth in an
iOS app on Apple's App Store?" which links to the LicensingFAQ, and
2. Update the LicensingFAQ with more information, going into details
about the incompatibilities between the LGPL and App Store terms, and
highlighting the grey areas.

I would be happy to help draft such wording.

At the end of the day, people are going to be releasing software into
the app store which uses FluidSynth, and the project leaders will need
to decide what action to take. First, would you ignore it, or ask the
app author to cease and desist? Second, if they refuse, would you a)
report it to gpl-violations.org and let them deal with it, b) report
it to Apple and let them deal with it, c) I suppose, take them to
court (I doubt anybody wants to go that far). The FAQ could outline
the project's position on the matter (regardless of what the license
says, whether you are generally happy with people using FS in the App
Store, or whether this would be considered to be "not in the spirit"
of open source by the people who wrote FS). I'm trying not to
influence that decision because I'm not actually a FS author.