--- Forwarded Message from Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> --- >From: Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> >Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:13:36 -0600 >Subject: Re: #9510.14 Voice Recording Software >To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]> The first paragraph of text under the first heading, "License", is clear and unequivocal. It says, in full: "Audacity is free software. You may use it for any personal, commercial or educational purpose, including installing it on as many different computers as you wish." <http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/license> I don't think there can be any doubt about the license, or its intent, as covering use in the language labs, as we are discussing. Perhaps it's odd that the case of installing the unmodified program on multiple computers isn't clearly treated AGAIN in the FAQs. However, after reading page after page of them, I find nothing that contradicts the clearly expressed terms of the License quoted above. The verbose and detailed FAQs make it clear that the goal of the license is to allow Audacity, and similarly licensed software, to be installed in as many computers as anyone desires. The pages and pages of discussion all focus on keeping access open and free, rather than restricting it. The sections that Judy quotes are from the "Advice for Vendors and Distributors", which is separate from the License, in its own section, although it is on the same page, linked above. That page is titled, "License, and Advice for Vendors and Distributors". We are neither distributors nor vendors. We are "educational purpose" users of Audacity, and we are given explicit rights by the license, "including installing it on as many different computers as you wish." The second of two paragraphs of the license begins, "You may also copy, distribute, modify, and/or resell Audacity, under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL)..." Note the word "also", which is adding rights to those granted in the first paragraph. Those additional rights have requirements, dedicated to keeping software free and open. The GNU General Public License (GPL) was created to support free and open software, with Education as a major constituency. Using software with this licensing in a university setting, as we are discussing, is not only legal, it is one of the goals of the licensing. Derek *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning Technology (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives at http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LLTI Anthony Helm, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************