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Grayjay is not Open Source (hiphish.github.io)

submitted 1 year ago by rglullis@communick.news to c/foss

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Today FUTO released an application called Grayjay for Android-based mobile phones. Louis Rossmann introduced the application in a video (YouTube link). Grayjay as an application is very promising, but there is one point I take issue with: Grayjay is not an Open Source application. In the video Louis explains his reason behind the custom license, and while I do agree with his reason, I strong disagree with his method. In this post I will explain what Open Source means, how Grayjay does not meet the criteria, why this is an issue, and how it can be solved.

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[–] t3rmit3 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Thank you, that is a good find. The other person I've been talking to hasn't been able to cite anything from them. I've updated my top-level comment with this info.

Interestingly, I wonder if they distinguish commercial use from commercial distribution, which the author is talking about. Not allowing someone to use the software as a business is very different from not allowing them to sell it as a product.

edit: Reading more into this, I do think this is about prohibiting use of software by commercial entities, not prohibiting entities from selling the software. Apparently this is actually a point of disputation within the community, with people like Richard Stallman insisting that you can prohibit commercial redistribution and be Open Source.

This makes sense as to why Clause 1 only asserts that it must be freely-redistributable when bundled together with software from other sources.

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