Wesnoth struggles with App Store's GPL incompatibilities

Posted Jul 21, 2010 18:57 UTC (Wed) by dbruce (guest, #57948)
Parent article: Wesnoth struggles with App Store's GPL incompatibilities

Hi,

I'm the lead developer and maintainer for Tux Math and Tux Typing (http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org), and I have also considered whether it is possible to offer Tux Math on the iPhone. I really detest Apple's policies regarding lock-down, but I have to admit that most kids love the iPhone, and there would be some educational value to having Tux Math there.

So, I talked to a lot of people, posted on some mailing lists that have knowledgable people, and came to the conclusion that it would be legally dubious to offer Tux Math as an iPhone app, although we might get away with it.

Tux Math has historically been a "GPLv2 or later" project, although many of our files suffer from some sloppiness of documentation. Almost all of the code comes from developers internal to the project. However, we have a few files that state "GPLv3 or later". Most of these are our own, and we could just relicense them however we want, but there is some outside code (maybe 1% or less of the code base) that is definitely "GPLv3 or later". So, the project as a whole has become "GPLv3 or later", even though almost all the code is GPLv2+. (We are consider cleaning up all the notices and moving all the files to GPLv3+).

My take on GPL3 and the iPhone is that they are pretty unequivocally incompatible. GPL2 has at least some arguable, ambiguous compatibility, IMHO, and there are certainly a few GPL2 apps in the App Store.

It should be noted that I have never read Apple's developer agreement, but what I have heard suggests it goes strongly against the principles of free software.

So, I reluctantly concluded that it would not be possible to put Tux Math on the iPhone under completely good faith actions.

David Bruce

Wesnoth struggles with App Store's GPL incompatibilities

Posted Jul 21, 2010 19:27 UTC (Wed) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link] (1 responses)

If the problem code is really "1% or less of the code base", why not rewrite that code yourselves and then you can distribute the whole under whatever license you choose?

I'm not saying its a good idea, just that it should be legal to do so.

Wesnoth struggles with App Store's GPL incompatibilities

Posted Jul 21, 2010 19:56 UTC (Wed) by dbruce (guest, #57948) [Link]

"If the problem code is really "1% or less of the code base", why not rewrite that code yourselves and then you can distribute the whole under whatever license you choose?"

We could do that, or even just do without the functionality provided by the outside GPL3 code. Still, even as our own project, a non-free relicensing to accomodate the App Store would make me feel like Faust making a pact with Mephistopheles (or perhaps Anakin exploring the dark side of the force, if you prefer).

It's more a balance between our young users saying "Cool! Tux Math is on the iPhone/iPad!" on the one hand, and on the other hand me and the other devs bemoaning the rise of an incredibly locked-down computer platform. I'd like to get our program on it, but only if we can do so under proper Free Software terms.

DSB

Wesnoth struggles with App Store's GPL incompatibilities

Posted Jul 22, 2010 0:24 UTC (Thu) by foom (subscriber, #14868) [Link] (1 responses)

So distribute it for Cydia.

A lot of people have Jailbroken phones already. If a bunch of good open source games start appearing only for the Cydia store, that might encourage even more people to "Open source enable" their phones with the jailbreak tools.

Wesnoth struggles with App Store's GPL incompatibilities

Posted Jul 26, 2010 23:56 UTC (Mon) by roelofs (guest, #2599) [Link]

Yup, and as of today, jailbreaking has some level of legal protection in the US (or least isn't a DMCA violation). Three cheers for the EFF.

Greg

Port to Android

Posted Jul 22, 2010 6:20 UTC (Thu) by Cato (guest, #7643) [Link] (2 responses)

Rather than supporting the highly closed iOS platform that is designed to be locked down, just port to Android.

There is a far wider selection of phones available than the iPhone, including some quite low cost ones ($150 or less without contract) as well as high end phones with all the gizmos. Android is fundamentally an open source platform and by all accounts is reasonable to develop for (whether in Java or C/C++). One example of openness: I've just bought an 18 month old G1 phone that originally ran Android 1.0, and can upgrade it to the latest Android 2.2 quite easily via CyanogenMod, whereas the original iPhone can't run iOS 4. Most Android phones are very reflashable and open (some can run Debian).

Android has a great combination of mass market phone apps and Linux tools. It lets me easily do things like run an SSH daemon plus rsync on the phone, so I can back it up exactly as I do with Windows and Linux boxes, using the excellent rsnapshot - not a mass market application but it shows how open it is.

It's quite likely that Android will overtake iOS in market share within a few years. The pace of new Android phones being introduced is increasing (next 6 months will see candybar, various Qwerty sliders and more), and Android is winning market share against iOS, subject to various new product introductions: http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/pages/u-s-smartphone-m... shows an increase from 2.5% to 13% while Apple's market share remained essentially the same at 24.4%.

Port to Android

Posted Jul 22, 2010 12:46 UTC (Thu) by Cato (guest, #7643) [Link] (1 responses)

Actually Android is already ahead of iPhone, but behind Blackberry, in terms of sales: http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-brief/50335-android-phone...

Port to Android

Posted Jul 31, 2010 1:52 UTC (Sat) by Linegod (guest, #201) [Link]

This should get more higher interest. While Apple and Android battle it out, RIM just 'works', and as far as I know, has a better method.

Wesnoth struggles with App Store's GPL incompatibilities

Posted Jul 22, 2010 13:29 UTC (Thu) by kh (guest, #19413) [Link]

I would be happy to support GPL'd programs by purchasing them for my (and my kids) /Android/ phones.