Dave Hooper wrote: (...) > I will shortly be releasing the source code to my SAASound sound emulation > library (as used by SAAEmu 0.60 and newer, and also WinCoupe) but I don't > know anything about the whole public-domain/GPL/whatever stuff. If someone > would like to (discretely) point me in the correct direction (or simply tell > me what I must do / must not do to ensure that the source is freely > distributable whilst maintaining some kind of 'protection' over SAASound - > in that I will not allow other people to release versions of SAASound > without my permission and say-so over the new code unless I decide to change > my mind over this in the future or unless it is made clear that the version > of SAASound created by this third party has nothing to do with me - and that > all versions of SAASound (especially such versions created without my > consent) contain the names and (optionally) contact addresses (email or > otherwise) of all people involved and that all versions of SaaSound contain > all the source code) then that would be great. > > I'm no lawyer but I'd still like to maintain control over SAASound
Well, I'm no laywer either, but... You could take a look at the Licence section on the AbiSource home page: http://www.abisource.com/ Check both the GPL and Trademark sections. (But neither are they laywers.) AbiSource make the AbiWord word processor. The program is fully GPL compliant (it is in fact, the wordprocessor component of GNU Office.) But they retain control of their trademark. Breifly, it works like this: The actual freely available open source GPL compliant program is called "AbiWord Personal". Someone downloading and building the source ends up with a program that has "AbiWord Personal" branded on it. "AbiWord Personal" is GPL compliant. However, AbiSource builds their own branded version called "AbiWord". The modified source code with just "AbiWord" on it is not available, and people are not allowed to use the "AbiWord" trademark without the "Personal" suffix. Presumably, when AbiSource want to build the source code, they just search and replace "AbiWord Personal" with "AbiWord". (They probably have a little script that does it, or something.) This seem to me a very sensible method, because not only does it make things very easy for someone do build their own version without making an imposter releasee, it actually ensures that people don't make an imposter release, even by accident. What do you think of that idea? SAAEmu Personal? -- James Gasson
