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

[David Henningsson]

On 09/07/2011 03:21 AM, Matt Giuca wrote:
> 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.

Feel free to update the wiki page with more information and links about 
the incompabilities.

> At the end of the day, people are going to be releasing software into
> the app store which uses FluidSynth,

So it seems.

> and the project leaders will need
> to decide what action to take.

Or rather, the copyright holders.

> 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 would agree that an official stance from the project would be a good 
thing. As it stands, we don't have a legal entity owning all the code, 
and I'm hesitant to try to assemble one given the difficulties 
collecting copyright assignments for both past and future contributors.
Therefore, there's no way we currently can speak for all copyright 
holders of the project.

> I'm trying not to
> influence that decision because I'm not actually a FS author.

On the contrary, as of 1.1.4 you are a copyright holder yourself. How do 
you feel about it?

And the other active contributors here, what stance of the project would 
make you more likely or unlikely to contribute to the project in the 
future?

// David