True to its phrase, Llama Group has launched the supply code for the Microsoft Home windows desktop construct of Nullsoft’s iconic Winamp media participant — however its license phrases ought to provide you with pause earlier than grabbing a replica and enjoying your self.
Llama Group promised it will launch the supply code for the traditional Home windows desktop construct of the media participant launched by Nullsoft in 1997 again in Could, claiming it to be “a choice that can delight hundreds of thousands of customers around the globe” within the phrases of Winamp chief govt officer Alexandre Saboundjian. Nonetheless, it didn’t reply to requests to make clear the license below which the software program could be printed — stating solely that “Winamp will stay the proprietor of the software program and can resolve on the improvements made within the official model.”
For those who bear in mind the glory days of Winamp, now you can peer into its internal workings — simply do not attempt to tinker. (📷: Nullsoft/Llama Group)
Now, the supply code is accessible — however it’s not simply the “official model” that is below the Llama Group’s management. The software program has been made out there below a customized license dubbed the Winamp Collaborative License Model 1.0.1, which the corporate describes as “a free, copyleft license,” however which comes with critical restrictions on how the supply code can be utilized.
Whereas the license’s preamble purports to ship “freedom to make use of, Modify [sic], and examine the software program,” modification is allowed just for unspecified “personal use.” Modified variations of the software program can’t be distributed “whether or not in supply or binary kind,” besides again to Llama Group and WinAmp — and in doing so that you present the corporate “a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to make use of, copy, modify, and distribute your contributions as a part of the software program, with none compensation to you.”
Regardless of claims to being a “free, copyleft” license, Winamp’s WCL fully blocks sharing of modified sources or binary information. (📷: Llama Group)
Taken at face worth, even these desirous to contribute to the official model of Winamp will discover it a problem: the restriction on distribution of modified supply means you may’t even fork the challenge from its official GitHub repository to make adjustments and submit a pull request, as doing so would represent distribution. This hasn’t nevertheless, stopped these considering enjoying with the supply code: on the time of writing, there have been already 763 forks and rising on GitHub alone.
For these not postpone by the one-sided license phrases, the supply code is accessible on GitHub.