I think – When James McCartney made the source GPL, this was declaring an intent: that the code should not be incorporated into closed-source (including, perhaps especially, for-profit) projects. I think it’s important to respect that wish.
I can imagine how I would feel if I put a massive achievement like SC Server out there and then found, contrary to my wishes, that chunks of the code had been absorbed into a soft synth. I’d be… furious.
It’s hard for me to see a way around that. We have this code only because James McCartney gave it away. He didn’t give it away with a “well, somebody could make money off of my work if they give the code back”… I think we have to respect that.
I didn’t mean using parts of SC server or SC lang in other software. I’m speaking about allowing to make proprietary applications using or fully written on SuperCollider language itself. As it possible with like 99% of other programming languages. That could be an exception in the license like, for example, you still forced to release your code under GPL if you use the source code of the server or the language, but you’re allowed to write proprietary software on the SuperCollider (or mix SuperCollider language with other in such a software) and use the server itself in such a software (i.e. the executable binary or some kind of SDK/API). (BTW speaking about re-licensing SC, if there would be an intent, we could just ask James McCartney.)
As you guys so categorical about it, I don’t have anything to add. I’d just like to clarify things about SC server (without SC language). It should be posted separately, I think, but as you already here…
The thoughts on using the server in a closed source projects are different. There are also examples of using the server in open source projects with more permissive license like MIT, which allows the software to be used in closed source projects (btw it’s not allowed to use GPL in MIT (while MIT in GPL is allowed) so this is another unclear point: whether I can use SC server in an open source project, which license is incompatible with GPL). And a few years ago I even saw a presentation about SC server and using it in proprietary games. A few weeks ago you said it’s fine to use SC server in proprietary software: GPL question: Using SC on a web server for back end audio processing And I’ve seen other examples of contrary opinions on this and there are some links in the thread I mentioned.
I’d like to make an audio application for writing music (a DAW). And I’d use SuperCollider server as an audio engine. I’d not do that application completely closed source. I’d like the application to be GPL, but allow proprietary plugins for it. If you know VCV Rack, I’d like to use the same scheme.
Can I use SC server that way? And in overall what do you think about making it clear once and for all? Somewhere like on the site or wiki.