Sam Whited
2015-04-20 14:57:54 UTC
Hi all,
TL;DR — Open Whisper Systems has the only apps that I've seen actually
taken off FDroid. Did someone here manage that, and if so, who did you
talk to / what was the process?
I recently noticed that a small app I wrote had been uploaded to
FDroid. I was a little disapointed to find that when I viewed the app
in their web viewer my name and copyright statement had been left out
contrary to the terms of the license (BSD 2-clause). They had also
stuck a big donate button (for them) up right next to my app's title,
which made it unclear if the user was donating to me (the author) or
them. As far as I could tell, it looked as if they had written / owned
my app. I'm also not a fan of the way they re-sign binaries, but
that's taken a back seat next to the license violation and putting up
a big donate button to capitalize on my work (which doesn't feel in
the spirit of the open source license, even if it's not technically a
violation of it).
I don't think they're doing this maliciously, but when I emailed them
to ask about removal (or proper credit / adding a donate link for me,
though I don't really want donations from the app) they told me they
didn't have time to deal with every app authors request and that they
saw no reason why they should take the app down when I followed up
asking them to remove it.
I'm hoping to avoid the ugliness of a legal (DMCA) takedown request,
but if that's what it takes to get them to honor the license, I will.
If the little guys who supposedly champion open source can't be
bothered to actually follow the license terms, I don't see how we can
complain when they're violated elsewhere either.
I know OWS has had experience with getting them to take an app down in
the past, so I was hoping someone here could provide insite into what
that process was. Who did you talk to? Did they give you a load of
trouble too? What was the final resolution?
Thanks,
Sam
TL;DR — Open Whisper Systems has the only apps that I've seen actually
taken off FDroid. Did someone here manage that, and if so, who did you
talk to / what was the process?
I recently noticed that a small app I wrote had been uploaded to
FDroid. I was a little disapointed to find that when I viewed the app
in their web viewer my name and copyright statement had been left out
contrary to the terms of the license (BSD 2-clause). They had also
stuck a big donate button (for them) up right next to my app's title,
which made it unclear if the user was donating to me (the author) or
them. As far as I could tell, it looked as if they had written / owned
my app. I'm also not a fan of the way they re-sign binaries, but
that's taken a back seat next to the license violation and putting up
a big donate button to capitalize on my work (which doesn't feel in
the spirit of the open source license, even if it's not technically a
violation of it).
I don't think they're doing this maliciously, but when I emailed them
to ask about removal (or proper credit / adding a donate link for me,
though I don't really want donations from the app) they told me they
didn't have time to deal with every app authors request and that they
saw no reason why they should take the app down when I followed up
asking them to remove it.
I'm hoping to avoid the ugliness of a legal (DMCA) takedown request,
but if that's what it takes to get them to honor the license, I will.
If the little guys who supposedly champion open source can't be
bothered to actually follow the license terms, I don't see how we can
complain when they're violated elsewhere either.
I know OWS has had experience with getting them to take an app down in
the past, so I was hoping someone here could provide insite into what
that process was. Who did you talk to? Did they give you a load of
trouble too? What was the final resolution?
Thanks,
Sam
--
Sam Whited
pub 4096R/54083AE104EA7AD3
https://blog.samwhited.com
Sam Whited
pub 4096R/54083AE104EA7AD3
https://blog.samwhited.com