Re: Ocean and the search for a Music Framework

[Marco Scheurer]

On Feb 29, 2004, at 9:44 PM, Dennis Leeuw wrote:
> Nope not an that page. But just do a grep -r NeXT * in the MusicKit 
> sources or Apple for that matter.
>
> > > I am sorry to have to report this, but as it stands now I don't 
> > > think MusicKit can and ever will be an OpenSource/Free Software kit.
> > I think to demand that all software that should be used with GNUstep 
> > _must_ have the copyright assigned to RMS is a little over the top. 
> > BTW german law explicitly forbids the assignment of the copyright to 
> > somebody else.
> Nope no need for that. But a line like:
> (c) NeXT all rights reserved
> Is somewhat problematic for me. I am not a lawer, I don't have the 
> knowledge to investigate what it can mean to me now, nor in the 
> future.
> And it is in a lot of .h files... :(

I am not a lawyer either, but the fact that this source code is 
copyrighted does not mean that it can not be used as you want. This 
depends on the license under which it is distributed. If the license 
says you can use it and distribute it, you're fine as long as you abide 
to the terms of the license.

NeXT, as the copyright owner (or Apple as its successor) could decide 
to distribute the same files under a different license, sell it, or 
whatever, but that's not a problem for you: they will not come after 
you or remove your rights to use it as long as you haven't failed to 
obey the license.

As I understand it the MusicKit license is reasonable, not unlike the 
Free BSD license. It does not have a publicity clause, merely an 
encouragement to acknowledge the work of others, and an obligation not 
to remove copyright notices (quite normal). It should be compatible 
with the GPL.

The GPL does not require that you give your copyright to anybody.

marco

Marco Scheurer
Sen:te, Lausanne, Switzerland   http://www.sente.ch