[PD] software license for pd general patch?

João Pais jmmmpais at googlemail.com
Tue Jun 29 11:37:17 CEST 2010


> a) I hear you would like to be able to distribute your patch.
> b) A Pd patch is not easily turned into closed-source for technical
> reasons.

exactly (that's why I almost went to max/msp for this). doesn't matter  
which license it has, the patch itself won't be "locked".


>> I was thinking of instead the BSD to use a CC license, the "Attribution  
>> No
>> Derivatives" one - http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/.
>
> Hm.. this makes the GPL unsuitable again. However, I do believe that the
> CC licenses are more suitable for artistic works (not that a computer
> program also can be an artistic work!), where a 'no derivatives' clause
> makes more sense, because a derivative work might change the context of
> the original oeuvre thus possibly changing the meaning of the original
> work completely, which the original creator might like to avoid.

that is true, the spirit of CC might not apply here 100%. I know CC better  
than other licenses because they have a very clear presentation, it's easy  
to read in 5m.


> In terms of software, since you have only little control over how people
> adapt your patch for their own use (and of course, they probably _would_
> like to change at least a tiny thing and forcing them to ask you first
> adds an imho unnecessary layer of bureaucracy), I suggest that the best
> options for you (and also for your users) is to 'pro-actively' allow
> them to make changes.
> The most important part is the 'attribution' clause, which is covered by
> both CC and GPL, iirc.

for those who want to change something - which would be the users of this  
list, who, btw, almost for sure won't be needing this patch - I would have  
nothing against changes (either small ones or putting in new features), as  
long as attribution would be there, and they wouldn't disseminate the  
patch as the original one [although for now I would prefer that no other  
version but the original one is around].
In a real world perspective, I'm almost 100% sure that the people who can  
work inside the patch (i.e. all of you) won't be interested in doing so,  
because it's a field that doesn't interest you that much. Since anyway I  
can't stop anyone from changing anything, I'm sure if someone would need  
to adapt something for its personal use, they won't be waiting for a mail  
reply from me.




More information about the Pd-list mailing list