SynthModules

Hello everyone again
i'm embarrassed to be emerging from my hole after publicly promising
to return there and stay …but there are a couple of statements
contained here in that are presented calmly as facts that are  not
entirely accurate from where i sit. 
and i decided that this discussion BELONGS in the open forum. 


i've agonized a bit about addressing this in the open forum because i
understand how contradictory challenges can make bystanders feel
uncomfortable. In truth they make ME uncomfortable. Unfortunately that
discomfort with contradiction is too easily exploited by anyone with a
penchant for bluffing and it favors the best poker face. I want to
maintain as much distance between myself and synthmodules as possible.
So i've framed none of this as a question….because i don't want any
answers.
Synthmodules said said what they said. 
i will say what i say.

Y'all judge for yourselves.

All business now…
(adjusts tie)

(A note on format: to show due respect for the principle of context
i've tried to retain sentences that are germane to the statements)

>Hello everyone.  The files posted here are *not* at risk.  Has anyone
>even read the GPL I proposed?  The files are FREE to use and use parts
>of, expand on, create new works based on it, etc... but this protects
>your code from *commercial* use.  

I do not want any such protection and i wrote no request for same.


>I contacted everyone who had
>contributed code before I put it under the GPL.  

I do not recall being contacted, and more importantly: i wrote no
request for any `protection' from commercial use of my code. I posted
my code to this yahoo site. The only understanding that i have ever
held about this action is that i was releasing this code into the
public domain with no expectation of compensation and with a full
understanding that i forfeit all proprietary claims on it. I do not
endorse the GPL nor have i ever endorsed it and i want none of it's 
protections.


>GPL on the code: Please read the license.  I've had almost a dozen
>people contact me now regarding using the code for commercial
>industrial designs they are working on.

 if those commercial concerns contact me at drmabuce@yahoo.com i will
provide them with any of the 14 applications i wrote


>  I'm trying to PROTECT our code by using the GPL.  Does anyone have a
> better solution?  How about the Creative Commons licensing?  Thoughts?

One thought: the author(s) of the code will own the rights to it or
forfeit them at their sole discretion. In the case of my 14
applications that prerogative is not yours to 'protect' or forfeit.

> I've spent a LOT of hours reworking the programs (adding the GPL
>header, contributing coders, cleaning up mistakes, making them more
>consistant, etc.).  

for the record, i cut copies of my applications from the synthmodules
directory and loaded the code into a text comparator. i make no
assertions about any other applications but in all fourteen of my
applications the only text differences detected were the deletion of
some of my heading comments and the insertion of synthmodules "GPL header'


	But please, *first* read the GPL.

I read it carefully today and i have read it in other forms and
versions on many other application programs. i do not want it on my code.

>Grant, I spoke to you about adding the GPL *before* I did so.
>Remember?  It does NOT in any way make it so the code isn't FREE.  If
>code is placed into the "Public Domain", it is FREE to use in
>commercial products 
> and I do *not* want to see people start SELLING
>PSIM-1 programs like ROMs for the Mini-Wave.  That is totally against
>everyting I intended from the beginning.  

(if i may interpose a a relevant comment into your address to Grant)

I respect all of the rights to which  synthmodules is entitled under
the laws that govern intellectual property in the U.S.

Synthmodules usurpation of the rights to my public domain code is an
infringement of my AUTHOR's rights. Synthmodules `intentions' now, or
in the past, have nothing to do with the subject 14 application programs.


a comment;
i realize that this may seem like a tempest in a teapot to many of
you, in the big picture it is. My irish is up over synthmodules claims
 that their SOLE motivation is MY protection. In the context of the
PSIM's backstory. I find such an assertion insulting; intentional
otherwise, the sting is the same.

Mike Murphy
aka dr mabuse of The Modern Implement Company