[Ardour-Dev] Licensing and enforced payments

[Mike Mazarick]

Just wanted to point out to you "young whipper-snappers" that this was
actually a triple entendre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#The_Medium_is_the_Massage:_An_
Inventory_of_Effects_.281967.29
(Marshall McLuhan died before most of you were born).

(this is very likely to get me into a lot of trouble by explaining it in
more detail)
The comment about women is that they seem to have an innate sense of what to
apply, how much to apply, when to show up, when to leave, etc.  This also
seems to be aligned with a 'herd' mentality (a herd of cats?) brought on
because their 'camera' is always focused externally on them and is recording
how they look, how they behave, etc.  Dudes, on the other hand seem to
generally have their 'cameras' mounted on the top of their heads focused on
whatever they happen to be looking at.   They are much more likely to get
into new things because of their innate curiousity and desire to take things
apart to see how they work.   They are much more likely just to hit the
'Reply' button without thinking a lot, especially if it is already connected
to their remote control.   If you are doing something brand new, it probably
doesn't involve a lot of women.  If you need something organized that
already exists, you probably will see more women than men.   If I say more,
I will just be digging the hole even  deeper.

Now, I must confess, in the past I received just a very few emails from this
group and have only been subscribed for a month or two.   I probably missed
out on the whole start of the subject, and found that we quickly got into a
'what can we do to make some money?' thread.  (BTW: I've been asking myself
that same question for most of my life, so it isn't brand new to me).

There are a few specifics that aren't clear to me right now, so I'm guessing
they aren't clear to others as well.

Here's the immediate questions:
1.   How much money are we talking about?
2.   How long do we need to raise it?   Is there a logical end to this
somewhere?
3.   How much are you, (we),(Paul) willing to 'sell out'?   (example:   if
all that is needed is money, could it be obtained from picking up trash or
collecting bottles by the road for recycle?).
4.   Is there a structure already in place that can collect some money?
Can you describe it?

Here's some nagging questions I have:
1.   Since I don't know the origin of this, I have no idea of the severity
or timing requirements.
2.   It looks to me that the method used to collect money is more of a
reaction than a plan.  You can get the most money when your customers are
rich and you are helping to make them rich.   It appears that we are trying
to get some 'blood out of a turnip' by squeezing a few musicians who have
figured out how to download free stuff.   If I felt they were getting rich,
I'd suggest that we go after this market.   However, I haven't run into a
musician who has become rich from using Linux tools yet.  
3.   (Please don't take this the wrong way, because nothing ever happens if
you wait for everyone else to agree with you) - Apparently, without the
structure and organization in place and a solid marketing plan of attack,
and even without the really key endorsement of the activity from the very
person everyone is trying to help, plans are being put forward before
decisions are completed.   What position or communications give you the
authority to make the decision that the 'what are we going to do?' is now
finished and that we are moving on to implementation?   We don't necessarily
need Robert's Rules of Order, but some type of overall plan would let us
know when we are in Phase I (Proposing methods), when we are in Phase II
(selection of Alternatives), etc.  Your enthusiasm and initiative is very
much appreciated, but you would get more people working with you and
marching behind you if others were included in the decision making process
and knew when certain milestones had to be met.
It could be a rehash of the pieces I have missed would help (and probably
others missed them as well).

A few strategic answers and observations:
1.   It would GREATLY help us all to think thru some things that can be done
(and especially 'may be possible') with Ardour that isn't possible with
Cubase, ProTools, et al.    I am no expert in any of them, so I am not
qualified to go in depth with this.  You have started the list with:
	a. Clip realtime effects (which Cubase lacks)
I can add:
	b. WFS systems universally use Ardour/Jack
there is probably a long list of existing features that are superior like:
	c.  More tracks available, less latency, more usability, larger
variety of hardware supported, greater ability to scale, etc.

By using a list like this, it would become easier to 'grade' where the
advantages will outweigh what the competition offers and where Ardour could
become important (movie production, audio live commercial shows, TV studios,
band gigs, recording studios, podcast sites, internet radio, etc)

2.  A very important observation is that no one has become rich and/or
famous yet using Linux audio tools.   Some consensus should be arising
around who this should be and it is also very important to support those who
are trying to make it happen for you.

3.  My personal opinion only:   The money is in the 'tie in'
products/services and isn't actually easy to get to or readily available
with Ardour without seriously compromising principles or destroying the
essential parts that makes Ardour different.   It may be easier to continue
to give Ardour away and let it plug into something useful that costs real
money.  Another obvious solution is to make all the music that is created
with Ardour GPL (or Creative Commons) unless you get some type of
'commercial license', which allows commercial music to be created with
Ardour.

Good luck, and keep up the good work.  

-Mike