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Plagiarism of my open source app ChatSecure

chatsecure.org

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Re: Plagiarism of my open source app ChatSecure

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Time to start charging for it - you've got something here. Might as well pick the fruits of your labor.

Amazingly, this (and the root comment up top) are actually getting downvoted. I hadn't realized the sentiment among open source developers against making money from their craft was so strong. But it shouldn't be. We, as developers, shouldn't harbor any ill will toward the OP should he decide to pull the open source version and sell it for profit. We certainly shouldn't advise him against it or recommend an alternativ…

I think the point that's missed (especially by you) is that proprietary, closed source software is fundamentally more insecure than open source.

As a user of proprietary software, you can't inspect that code for bugs and you can't inspect it for malicious code - you just have to take the vendor's word for it that "it is really secure, honest! And there aren't any backdoors put in by the US government/china/whoever"

I don't know whether chatsecure is any good or would withstand attacks by a nation state, but if I were a security researcher or an aid organisation in the 3rd world, I could look at the source and find out.

Re: Plagiarism of my open source app ChatSecure

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on how many copies have been sold, and what the support costs are likely to be. If he's only sold two copies, then it's not going to be worth packaging it up.

Don't forget, it's already packaged up. It's in the app store already. The author can spend the next ten minutes logging into his apple account and adding a price to it. That's all the effort needed to turn this into a product (besides rewriting the App Store description so that people other than himself can parse what the application actually does).

And then spend the next year supporting it because people have paid 99c and feel that they can now demand support instead of asking for it? No thanks.

Re: Plagiarism of my open source app ChatSecure

#83

Seems like a pretty reasonable response to me. More importantly, I wonder how frequently this happens - pulling down an open-source project and trying to sell it elsewhere?

There's nothing illegal about doing that. Only the relicensing is iffy.

If you violate the license, it's illegal.
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