[Ardour-Users] Could this solve Ardour's financial headache?

[Mark Knecht]

On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 8:07 AM, John Emmas <johne53 at tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jamie McLaughlin"
> Subject: Re: [Ardour-Users] Could this solve Ardour's financial headache?
>>
>> I would be completely against a model where you had to pay to download.
>> Such a model would inevitably hinder the distribution of the software
>>
> Sorry to have to keep clarifying this point - but free downloads would still
> be available.  You'd only have to pay if you wanted to access the code using
> SVN (and even then, it would be a small fee, payable only once).  If you
> chose not to pay the fee you could still obtain the latest release, together
> with its source code for free.  Your only problem would be that if
> something's been improved in the s/ware, you'd need to wait for the next
> official release.  That's the price you pay for saving your $35.
>
> John

But again, if there is a binary made freely available of what's in SVN
then the code must be freely available also. And if only the paying
group gets access then there's less debug going on. Probably not a
good thing...

I get that your idea is that those of us who don't pay the proposed
access fee only get old (stable) binaries, but anyone with SVN access
can make a binary and redistribute the code freely (because it's under
GPL and they have that freedom) so it seems to me it's just a small
roadblock that likely won't stop much and just gets in the way of what
Open Source is really about. I'll pay the $35 and redistribute it
myself. Once I stick it somewhere that a Gentoo portage server can get
to it then it goes to everyone everywhere. any I'd do it that way
because it's easier for me to build my own copies just using my
regular tool set.

Or do you envision asking me to sign away my GPL rights along with
also giving my money?

I just don't think this is the real answer but even though my comments
could easily seem negative I hope you don't take them that way. I
think it's an important issue on an important project. It's good to
talk about it as maybe someone will have the truly workable idea. The
best high-volume, lost cost solutions are those that leverage the
marketplace which probably means having a committed hardware vendor
involved.

Cheers,
Mark