A few thoughtful bloggers have asked about Songbird’s source license, whether Songbird will be free (as in speech), open source or proprietary.
The short answer is that Songbird weaves threads of open source MPL (e.g., XULRunner), third-party licensed proprietary code (e.g., Microsoft portable device support, codecs and DRM; third-party Windows CD rip/burn libs, etc.) and mixed, likely open source, original code.
The long answer is that the decision belongs not to us but our digital media network service partners. As previously touched upon, Songbird’s most significant innovation is its faithful, agnostic integration of user-selected network services.
Digital media network service providers shall depend on Songbird to define, protect and promulgate Songbird’s remote digital media network service APIs and features. Perhaps not surprisingly, few of our partners have expressed that an entirely free or open source solution would provide them a superior balance of innovation and stability in the short-term. Moreover, some of these partners may be releasing their own Songbird-derived media players.
The longest answer, abbreviated here for sake of discussion, is that digital media network service consumers will vote with their dollars (or euros or yen). Currently, Apple’s FairPlay DRM — what Ian Rogers has called “the 8-track of our generation” — has captured the lion’s share of all commercial digital media exchanges. How the digital media marketplace slid from a multi-vender, multi-device MP3-based market to a single-vendor, single-device proprietary DRM-balkanized monopoly is a topic for much reflection.
Regardless, rest assured that the vast majority of Songbird’s code useful to extension and skin feather developers will remain open source, licensed by the MPL. Songbird will support diverse and cross-platform extensions and themes, just like Firefox.
15 Comments
SubscribeThat is something I will watch closely
While I’m excited to see an initial beta release ASAP regardless of licensing issues, I think the sane thing to eventually do is to make a fully open-source version of Songbird that uses a plugin system for its proprietary codecs and such. This way, Songbird will be legally unencumbered and can be bundled with free operating systems, while the end-user version available from the website will include all of the plugins.
This might not be a very useful comment, but I totally agree with what Anonymous said. A free and open-source Songbird that let the users plug in what proprietary codec they want (if they want to use prop codecs) is a good idea.
It’s a rip off of iTunes. Yes it is.
So, you are going to implement DRMs? .. It´s a pitty.. I think DRM system in the future will take our freedom….
for the rest of the project, my congratulations, It seems it´s going to have a big success!
Willit support Sonys .OMA fles oratrac files .It would be nice if it can rip CD IN ATRAC & CAN BE USED AS SUBSTITUDTE OF sONIC STAGE
Well, I think I need to make a big long post talking about how Songbird relates to DRM, but the primary point to be made is that we’re mostly DRM agnostic.
Since we don’t write the media core under the hood, we don’t implement anything anywhere near DRM.
Of course, that means we might not be able to play some things. Nature of the beast when you’re an open platform taking on a proprietary one.
another boring posting from an irrelevant individual
Hi All,
I think a free(MPL/GPL) version of Songbird would totally rock. This way distros like fedora, debian, ubuntu, etc. could include songbird by default and not have to worry about license issues. If someone wants to use MP3/AAC, whatever they can just install the relevant plugin.
keep up the great work, look forward to a plug-in style Songbird
Cheers
Justin
That’s the plan.
How clever. Show some support, will you?
I totally see future extensions to patch that (i.e. unability to play DRM).
Yeah, good suggestion, since Sony had the “brilliant” idea of locking its Walkman brand compatibility to its own format and software.
This might not be a very useful comment, but I totally agree with what Anonymous said. A free and open-source Songbird that let the users plug in what proprietary codec they want (if they want to use prop codecs) is a good idea.
Songbird will be legally unencumbered and can be bundled with free operating systems, while the end-user version available from the website will include all of the plugins.