Hi Javier,
- VST 2.4 SDK was released in the beginning of 2006. It's being distributed "freely subject to certain licensing conditions".
I don't think it's a big step from there to making it free software compatible.
- Long-term solution means exactly that: long-term. Steinberg changed ownership in two years. It could happen again.
Perhaps, but if only one version of the SDK is out there under a free licence then we'd be a lot further along than where we are today.
So I think it would be in Steinberg's interest to solve the licence problem (given that it will want to maintain the hegemony of the VST format).I think that would be in Free Software's interest. Releasing the VST API is like releasing the Servlets API, building a SDK from the headers becomes feasible. Who would need Steinberg's products then?
I don't think proprietary VST development is threatened by the existence of free software implementations; in fact, it helps ensure the continued dominance of the format (this is what I mean by hegemony) at the expense of both rival proprietary formats and emerging free software formats such as LV2. Remember Steinberg sells end-user proprietary applications, not SDKs.
On the other hand, if Yamaha really is Free Software friendly (not just Linux friendly, commercial applications don't have our problem)
They do if they want to link to any GPL'd code, which I think is difficult to avoid in practice if you're building a product around the Linux kernel (and that's just as well).
Cheers! Daniel