[PD] Re: PD-list Digest, Vol 11, Issue 2

Eric Lyon audiodidact at gmail.com
Wed Feb 1 21:48:26 CET 2006


>
> > The main reason I did not post the source is because it is not yet unified
> > or easy to compile, and I wanted to make the externals available before
> > however many months it might take for me to get the code in shape. However
> > you are welcome to get the code over here (but you have to figure out how
> to
> > compile it).
>
> Figuring out stuff like this is what some people here specialize in. ;)
>

I'm aware of that; for now the code is online for anyone who would like to
play with it, (http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~eric/MAX/FFTease/code.html)
but I'm not happy with its current state, so I guess I don't want
to put it on the main page where someone might download it, try to compile
it and it probably wouldn't work for them. There are a lot of gurus on this
list, but I think it's important to have consideration for some of the people
here who don't eat C code for breakfast.

> > I think this is probably correct; as I understand it, the GPL places some
> > restrictions on what you can do with the code. I think we are a bit
> > more permissive, but if there is some way that you find our "licencette"
> > more restrictive, I'm willing to consider relaxing it.
>
> The problem is, that any Open Source/Free Software by definition must
> not pose any restrictions on how that software is used. So if FFTease
> would *only* be allowed to be used for research and arts, but not for
> any other uses (like making coffee), then FFTease would not be free
> software as it violates "freedom 0": "The freedom to run the program,
> for any purpose" - including making coffee.
>

Thanks for putting it that way. Technically it doesn't prohibit you from
making coffee or doing anything else, but I see that explicitly stating the
things that we expect most people would do with FFTease might imply
that you can't do other things with it. I suppose we could say "can be
freely used for any artistic or research purpose, or anything else you
can think of," but that sounds kind of clunky. Note we did not use the
word *only* in the licencette - we said what you *could* do, not what
you couldn't do. I might consider something like Christopher's licencette for
HyperUpic which states, "use freely at your own psychological risk."

It's tough to cover all bases. For example, IIRC Miller states that you
can use Pd "for any reasonable purpose." But I reckon that many uses
of Pd might be considered unreasonable and that's what makes them
interesting. If this is really a problem for people, I'll give it some thought
and see if I can come up with something that doesn't offend my sense
of aesthetics.

Eric




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