So when does this app get banned from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store? They clearly violate some terms of service... if legit apps get banned then why not this behaviour?
Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
61–70 of 164 posts
Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
#62Maybe I don't know the full story, but from reading this post and the comments it's a shame how peoples attitudes are towards this. When people violate the GPL, it's most likely due to ignorance. I really think we should encourage and act positively when commercial/corporate/enterprise crap opens up their source code. When we find a GPL (or any license violation), why can't we approach it politely (in the first case)…
That is true, but I feel like we should apply different levels of scrutiny to some small project and an app developed by people with close ties to government officials who received literally millions of Euros in public funding to develop and license this app.
This isn't even a GPL violation as the code in question was licensed under a BSD license. They simply removed the original copyright notice, which may have been a genuine accident caused by misconfigured tooling (especially since someone mentioned they changed the formatting).
The reason people are outraged is entirely that this is a publicly funded multi-million Euro project that is already facing accusations of corruption/nepotism and tried to open-source wash a proprietary product (as the app wasn't even published under an open-source license at the time). You can't really point at this incident and derive a general point about "people's attitudes towards violating the GPL".
Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
#63Is it copyright infringement or breach of license agreement?
Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might be getting closer but someone who is just barely making ends meet could be ruined by that, where someone with obscene wealth can lose even 10% and still buy a yacht minutes later.
Yeah, but he can only do that a few times. It's a much, much better system than what we have today for most things. Of course, it hinges on being able to tell how much income they have, which is (at least in Germany) the hard part, as the defendant is not required to help.
The tax authority generally has that data.
Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm born here and lived here all my life and this has never happened to me.
That's not too surprising IMHO, I would expect this to be more visible to foreigners. I myself have never seen any type of low-level corruption in my home country but I learnt that also happens quite often, it's just not too visible if you don't know where to look at. I'm not from Germany, and do have a foreign name, I guess that may play a role.
Some handymen tried to double charge me, in cash of course, but that's the only thing I've experienced. The stats say 20% of Germans report having been asked for a bribe at some point in their lives. That's not great, but not terrible either.
Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know why you're getting downvoted. Where I live, they recently said they will open shops for a couple of days, and you can get in if either 1) you received a vaccine 2) you use the "Luca" app so it doesn't matter who developed it, it's being used as an official app (at least in some places).
Matters in that its not the government but a private company violating copyright.
The other "official app" ("Corona Warn App") is also not developed by the government or any government-employed developers. That distinction is no distinction.
"Official" means that the government has adopted it and given it a special status.
The federal government and state governments have endorsed the Corona Warn App. No special privileges in lockdown are connected to it. No special use by public health authorities is made of it.
Several state governments and municipal government have endorsed (and bought licenses to!) the Luca app. Special privileges in lockdown are connected with it, not everywhere, but in many places. Public health authorities are directly connected to Luca's servers.
If anything, the Luca app is more official than Corona Warn App where it's in use (several German states), and poised to become more important as more states introduce it.
Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
#67Oh the irony. The LUCA app has been co-initiated and financed by Smudo [0], a famous German rapper. He was a supporter of Metallica suing Napster back in 2000 for copyright violation [1]. [0] https://www.chip.de/news/Kontaktverfolgung-mit-Luca-App-von-... [1] https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Smudo-vs-Napster-Da-...
It has been 21 years . Can we let the past go?
Actions, especially those by public figures, can have consequences that last far longer than 21 years
Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm born here and lived here all my life and this has never happened to me.
That's not too surprising IMHO, I would expect this to be more visible to foreigners. I myself have never seen any type of low-level corruption in my home country but I learnt that also happens quite often, it's just not too visible if you don't know where to look at. I'm not from Germany, and do have a foreign name, I guess that may play a role.
I wouldn't call this corruption, this sounds more like some one tried to fuck you over.
Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
#69This is not the official contract tracing app (that one can be found here https://github.com/corona-warn-app ), its a commercial product that's only been "open sourced" under pressure of the public. Their service was financed be the same public figures that are now heavily pushing for its use. And as one comment in the linked GitHub issue states, calling their license "open source" is really more of a marketing joke.…
> And as one comment in the linked GitHub issue states, calling their license "open source" is really more of a marketing joke.
Like Android.
Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app
#70German lawyers are ecstatic over copyright issues. Soon they will form human centipede and demand 1000 EUR from everyone whose address they'll put their hands on.
I highly doubt it as this is about a commercial app infringing on the copyright of a small open source developer. They will only send letters to people who cannot defend themselves.
No, they also like to do that with large companies. A few hundred € damage is too low for most companies to care much about it.
If the open source developer hires a lawyer I'm sure they'd be happy to make them some money. I wouldn't be surprised if they already got contacted. There are a lot of German lawyers out there looking for "victims" to sue on their behalf.