Re: [PD] GPL vs. iPhone Appstore WAS: pd on ipad with externals

2010-08-11 Thread Jonathan Wilkes

--- On Tue, 8/10/10, Hans-Christoph Steiner h...@at.or.at wrote:

 From: Hans-Christoph Steiner h...@at.or.at
 Subject: GPL vs. iPhone Appstore WAS: pd on ipad with externals
 To: Jonathan Wilkes jancs...@yahoo.com
 Cc: pd-list@iem.at, Frank Barknecht f...@footils.org
 Date: Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 6:39 PM
 
 On Aug 10, 2010, at 12:25 PM, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
 
  
  --- On Tue, 8/10/10, Frank Barknecht f...@footils.org
 wrote:
  
  From: Frank Barknecht f...@footils.org
  Subject: Re: [PD] pd on ipad with externals
  To: pd-list@iem.at
  Date: Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 12:53 PM
  Hi,
  
  On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 11:07:55AM +0100, João
 Pais
  wrote:
  but to make patches run, they have to be
 programmed in
  vanilla,
  right? and it's not possible to do reatime
 control
  like input
  numbers, or anything more than the touchpad
 control?
  
  or is it possible to use pd-ext in the iphone
 or ipod
  maxi?
  
  As Cyrille wrote, it's mostly a political issue:
 AppStore
  apps are
  tied to the device and officially only available
 through
  the AppStore.
  This is some kind of DRM and many people don't
 consider it
  compatible
  with the GPL, at least not with the latest
 version.
  
  More specifically, the FSF considers the GPL
 incompatible with the
  ToS for the Itunes and App store:
  
  http://www.fsf.org/news/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store-gpl-enforcement
  
  
  To play it safe, the Pd in RjDj only contains the
 BSD parts
  of Pd, no
  [expr] etc. Some GPL stuff is included, like the
 rj
  library, but that's
  all written by Reality Jockey.
  
  What does authorship have to do with whether the
 Appstore ToS conflicts
  with the GPL?
 
 
 The GPL is a license to use copyrighted material that you
 otherwise would not have any legal right to use.

That's not the greatest definition I've ever heard (think of fair use, 
for example).  But if you're trying to saying the GPL gives users 
freedoms, where historically licensing agreements were used to 
*restrict* distribution to a particular publisher, then yes.

 If
 the author of GPL software posts their software to the
 appstore, it could be read as a implied statement that the
 author is not going to enforce all aspects of the GPL. 
 An explicit statement to that effect would be better.

I don't know about the legal issues involved in this, but I would think 
if you're going to use the GPL and *not* enforce it, you'd do better 
to cover yourself by refraining from saying anything explicitly about 
what you will or will not enforce.

Morally, I'd be suspicious of using any software that holds this 
caveat because as far as I can see it diminishes the importance of at 
least one (if not all) of the four freedoms outlined in the GPL. 
(Because if *everyone* explicitly stated their intention not to enforce, 
GPL would carry little weight.)

If you don't want to enforce those four freedoms, use the three-clause 
BSD license.

 
 If you don't own the copyright, then that is not your
 decision to make.

That wasn't what my question was about.

My question was if [expr] is left out in order to play it safe, then 
why is other GPL software included, and what is the relevance that 
Reality Jockey is the author of that GPL software? But from Frank's 
recent post it's obvious he did a lot of thinking about this and planned 
things carefully with regard to distributing the GPL stuff, so that 
answered my question.

However, if the GPL stuff is being distributed over the appstore as 
well, isn't there still the problem that the user is agreeing both to the
GPL terms AND Apple's ToS (which conflict according to the FSF)?  
It's a bit comical in this case, since Apple's usage rules are 
applying to patches that double as the source code, but maybe there are 
other issues at play.

-Jonathan


 
 .hc
 
 
 
 
 
 Programs should be written for people to read, and only
 incidentally for machines to execute.
  - from Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
 




  

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[PD] GPL vs. iPhone Appstore WAS: pd on ipad with externals

2010-08-10 Thread Hans-Christoph Steiner


On Aug 10, 2010, at 12:25 PM, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:



--- On Tue, 8/10/10, Frank Barknecht f...@footils.org wrote:


From: Frank Barknecht f...@footils.org
Subject: Re: [PD] pd on ipad with externals
To: pd-list@iem.at
Date: Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 12:53 PM
Hi,

On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 11:07:55AM +0100, João Pais
wrote:

but to make patches run, they have to be programmed in

vanilla,

right? and it's not possible to do reatime control

like input

numbers, or anything more than the touchpad control?

or is it possible to use pd-ext in the iphone or ipod

maxi?

As Cyrille wrote, it's mostly a political issue: AppStore
apps are
tied to the device and officially only available through
the AppStore.
This is some kind of DRM and many people don't consider it
compatible
with the GPL, at least not with the latest version.


More specifically, the FSF considers the GPL incompatible with the
ToS for the Itunes and App store:

http://www.fsf.org/news/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store-gpl-enforcement



To play it safe, the Pd in RjDj only contains the BSD parts
of Pd, no
[expr] etc. Some GPL stuff is included, like the rj
library, but that's
all written by Reality Jockey.


What does authorship have to do with whether the Appstore ToS  
conflicts

with the GPL?



The GPL is a license to use copyrighted material that you otherwise  
would not have any legal right to use.  If the author of GPL software  
posts their software to the appstore, it could be read as a implied  
statement that the author is not going to enforce all aspects of the  
GPL.  An explicit statement to that effect would be better.


If you don't own the copyright, then that is not your decision to make.

.hc





Programs should be written for people to read, and only incidentally  
for machines to execute.

 - from Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs


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