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Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app

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Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app

#151

Post by vangelis »

reader_mode wrote: post #116
rostigerpudel wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People see this as an act of either carelessness or malevolence which both is unacceptable in an application that collects and stores very personal data on a large scale.

I think you have unrealistic expectations of applications developed for public sector - I'm usually surprised if they do core of intended functionality correctly.

I've had pleasant experiences with applications developed by the public sector. It's the consulting companies that are no good. Look at 18F.

Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app

#154

Post by xbar »

reader_mode wrote: post #99
nevi-me wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is taking someone's code, be it small, and deliberately removing the attribution; an error?

Likely. Why is everyone acting like this is some high conspiracy or even blaming the entire project - this was probably some lazy dev that didn't want to deal with the hassle of including the licence and just copy pasted the class. I used to do this when I was learning to code, I often reimplemented stuff already available for learning and would just copy paste large chunks. I didn't publish any work back then and I…

No excuses to fail to meet the rules of OSS. None.

Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app

#155

Post by drstewart »

rostigerpudel wrote: post #104
reader_mode wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely. Why is everyone acting like this is some high conspiracy or even blaming the entire project - this was probably some lazy dev that didn't want to deal with the hassle of including the licence and just copy pasted the class. I used to do this when I was learning to code, I often reimplemented stuff already available for learning and would just copy paste large chunks. I didn't publish any work back then and I…

People see this as an act of either carelessness or malevolence which both is unacceptable in an application that collects and stores very personal data on a large scale.

I see. Can you talk a bit more about the review process where you work to ensure no unlicensed code is committed? I assume there's either an automatic or manual, rigorous process that's followed.

Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app

#156

Post by wirrbel »

dthul wrote: post #49
heckerhut wrote: post #13

Oh 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-...

I haven't heard that name in quite some time! I remember receiving a relatively pissed off email from him in response to an interview request quite a few years ago. I guess the lasting negative impression I got of him from that exchange is not totally unfounded.

A friend worked backstage and he has not-so-fond memories of Smudo. Large ego and a tendency to let people feel that he thinks he is a star.

Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app

#157

Post by NicoJuicy »

moooo99 wrote: post #6

This 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.…

I'd like to mention that while Belgium did not everything right.

Having a rather small company "devside" to build the app ( it had references and a credible portfolio of > 100 apps) was a good thing for a good price.

They won from those that build the app in Germany and wanted big belgian telecom to join for the infrastructure for a much higher cost. While they only needed to change some parameters and localize it.

Result: 1 week of delay ( 8 weeks was budgeted) and everything opensource from the start, is what I consider a good result.

Respect where it's due! Hat off

https://github.com/covid-be-app

Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app

#158

Post by andor »

turblety wrote: post #48

Maybe 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)…

Completely agree, they were hit by an angry mob of unthankful people.

I think most in the mob are aware that their reaction is overblown. The list of OSS licenses is usually buried deep inside the docs and few ever read it. Luca made themselves vulnerable by opening up their code and the mob is using this weakness to attack them.

It's really about not wanting this app to succeed, because they are making good money and because there are valid privacy concerns. Maybe Luca should not be widely used, but then the politicians who bought it are at fault, not the developers. Also nobody is forced to install it.

Then there's the complaint about Luca's license. They open up their codebase and people complain that the license is not free enough? Mind blown, try that with any large company and see how far you get. Microsoft, give me your Office source code, or... I'll write an angry tweet!

Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app

#159

Post by reader_mode »

BubuIIC wrote: post #133
reader_mode wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have unrealistic expectations of applications developed for public sector - I'm usually surprised if they do core of intended functionality correctly.

This isn't a project developed for the public sector really. Afaik it's a privately funded, for profit, product that has been licensed by several states in Germany by now. Apart from that the official (indeed publicly funded) Corona-Warn-App did a much better job at this. (They actually did follow all the recent best practices in software-develoment + it's (mostly) run as a free software project, taking community con…

Sounds like a contractor developing something that gets paid with public money.

Re: Copyright infringement by German contact tracing app

#160

Post by BenjiWiebe »

ganafagol wrote: post #103
zeepzeep wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downvoted because I hate the use of /s

How would you recommend to indicate sarcasm in the absence of nonverbal cues which a written medium necessarily entails?

My guess would be that they dislike sarcasm in general.
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