[Bug 226492] Merge Review: timidity++

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Summary: Merge Review: timidity++


https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=226492





------- Additional Comments From j.w.r.degoede at hhs.nl  2008-01-24 11:11 EST -------
(In reply to comment #2)
> License check list:
> Source1,3,4: SourceURL links broken, and all binaries.
>              What are these files?
>              Maybe Public Domain? or like
>              "Redistributable, no modification permitted"?


Bummer,

I've spend some time (lots of time) investigating this instruments.tar.bz2
contains the midia (a public domain SGI midi player) patch set which is still
available here:
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/audio/softsynths/midia/

Its a .tar.gz there, but after unpacking both are identical. There is no clear
proof of this being public domain, other then it being allegedly pd here:
http://www.opensound.com/softoss.html

Notice that opensound is not distributing it anymore themselves, nor can the
complete midia player be found anywhere on the net.

I did eventually find this post where the author claims that the midia patches
are modified copies of the patches distributed with the gravis ultrasound and
thus are illegal:
http://archive.netbsd.se/?ml=netbsd-tech-pkg&a=2006-10&t=2429714

Taking the disappearance of midia from the net into account this doesn't sound
unbelievable.

...

So this leaves us with no patches and thus no midi playback capability, I've
just checked Debian, and they have the same problem.

I've spend hours browsing the net for reasonably sized General Midi patch sets,
none can be found in GUS .pat format, but I've found several in .sf2 format
(which timidity can use too, we may need to convert it though for use with
SDL_mixer / allegro / libtimidity / wildmidi).

All .sf2 GM patch sets I've found come either without a license statement, or
one which is not compatible with Fedora :(

However I've send mail to all patchset authors that I could find a working mail
address of, asking them for license conditions if none were given, and if they
were given if they are willing to reword things so that they become compatible
with Fedora's content guidelines.

I've send 6 mails in total, so stay tuned.

Since timidity has been part of RedHat since RedHat 6.2, presumably with these
patches, I'm currently not planning on removing them immediately, hoping that we
will have a backup for them in place soon, I'll send a private mail to Spot
pointing him to this bug.



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