En avril 2021, le logiciel a été racheté par la société Muse Group. Cette société – auteure de logiciels de notation musicale ainsi que de catalogues en ligne de partitions – a déjà été à l'origine d'un rachat de logiciel open source : MuseScore.
Toutefois, les récentes modifications apportées au site Web d'Audacity ainsi qu'une proposition de modification de code ont apporté quelques tensions au sein de la communauté. Plus précisément, la demande de modification consistait à ajouter de la télémétrie (autrement dit, la récolte et l'envoi d'informations de l’utilisation faite du logiciel). Cette phrase est au passé, car suite à la réaction de la communauté, la demande a été supprimée. Une réponse sur le sujet a été donnée à la communauté. Il est d'ailleurs à noter que la télémétrie a été ajoutée à MuseScore en 2019.
Par contre, l'histoire ne s'arrête pas là. La page d'avis de confidentialité autour de l'utilisation du logiciel a été mise à jour le 2 juin 2021. Il est possible d'y lire :
Minors
The App we provide is not intended for individuals below the age of 13. If you are under 13 years old, please do not use the App.
Who does Audacity share your Personal Data with?
We may disclose the Personal Data listed above (your hashed IP address) to the following categories of recipients:
to our staff members. We take precautions to allow access to Personal Data only to those staff members who have a legitimate business need for access and with a contractual prohibition of using the Personal Data for any other purpose.
to any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary (i) as a matter of applicable law or regulation, or (ii) to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights;
to our auditors, advisors, legal representatives and similar agents in connection with the advisory services they provide to us for legitimate business purposes and under contractual prohibition of using the Personal Data for any other purpose.
to a potential buyer (and its agents and advisers) in connection with any proposed purchase, merger or acquisition of any part of our business, provided that we inform the buyer it must use your Personal Data only for the purposes disclosed in this Notice;
to any other person if you have provided your prior consent to the disclosure.
The App we provide is not intended for individuals below the age of 13. If you are under 13 years old, please do not use the App.
Who does Audacity share your Personal Data with?
We may disclose the Personal Data listed above (your hashed IP address) to the following categories of recipients:
to our staff members. We take precautions to allow access to Personal Data only to those staff members who have a legitimate business need for access and with a contractual prohibition of using the Personal Data for any other purpose.
to any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary (i) as a matter of applicable law or regulation, or (ii) to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights;
to our auditors, advisors, legal representatives and similar agents in connection with the advisory services they provide to us for legitimate business purposes and under contractual prohibition of using the Personal Data for any other purpose.
to a potential buyer (and its agents and advisers) in connection with any proposed purchase, merger or acquisition of any part of our business, provided that we inform the buyer it must use your Personal Data only for the purposes disclosed in this Notice;
to any other person if you have provided your prior consent to the disclosure.
La communauté est donc mécontente, mais est-ce que cela suffira ? En effet, si on regarde la page de MuseScore, on y retrouve les mêmes propos.
Votre opinion
Pensez-vous qu'un fork sera créé à l'issue de ces changements ? Est-ce qu'un tel fork détruira le projet ?Source
Annonce du rachat
Github d'Audactity où les utilisateurs montrent leur mécontentement