Paul Barton-Davis wrote:

> If you have any opcodes you can make available under the GPL, please
> let me know. And thanks for your enthusiasm.

Why do they have to be released under the GPL? I certainly understand
the motives behind the GPL, but some opcode authors may feel constrained
by the terms of the GPL. As far as I understand it, if you write a piece
of software (say an opcode) and "copyleft" it under GPL, you can not use
that piece of software within a commercial product without publishing
the source code for that product (i.e. not really a viable commercial
product). I think that it would be unduly restrictive to insist that
opcodes to be used in Quasimodo must be GPL, as many of the opcode
authors may wish to incorporate their own code into a commercial product
(such as a VST or DirectX plugin) at some point in the future. 

I am hoping to author some opcodes this quarter for my final project in
my computer music course, and I plan on releasing these to the Csound
community as a whole - assuming I can get them to work. :) I would love
for these opcodes, if and when they are completed, to be useable in
Quasimodo, and in any other Csound variant.  However, I have to admit
that I would not want to release them in such a way as to prohibit my
own useage of my own code in a future commercial product.

Just my $.02,

> Why do they have to be released under the GPL? I certainly understand
> the motives behind the GPL, but some opcode authors may feel constrained
> by the terms of the GPL. As far as I understand it, if you write a piece
> of software (say an opcode) and "copyleft" it under GPL, you can not use
> that piece of software within a commercial product without publishing
> the source code for that product (i.e. not really a viable commercial

Excuse me if i step in here, but this is an incorect interpretation of the
GPL.  The license only says that the person who i chose to distribute my
code to is bound by these terms.  _I_ can ALWAYS release MY CODE under any
license i feel like.  I can simultaneously release it under the GPL, QPL,
NPL, MPL, APSL etc... its totally up to me.  The grey area comes in is
that I cannot change the license on other people alterations/submissions
to that code.  So if someone else sends me some bug fixes for my software,
I could not later alter the license on that code fix without the other
authors consent. 

> community as a whole - assuming I can get them to work. :) I would love
> for these opcodes, if and when they are completed, to be useable in
> Quasimodo, and in any other Csound variant.  However, I have to admit
> that I would not want to release them in such a way as to prohibit my
> own useage of my own code in a future commercial product.

This will never be the case.  You are the copyright owner and get to chose
how you license your code.

Hope that clears some stuff up.

---
Joshua W. H. Steiner - jsteiner@antioch-college.edu - http://joschi.base.org

Turing once dreamed that he was a machine. When he awoke he exclaimed: 

"I don't know whether I am Turing dreaming that I am a machine, or a 
machine dreaming that I am Turing!"