Clarification on use of the GPLv3 Licensing

[mjunek]

xLights is licensed under the GNU Public License version 3 (GPLv3).

This requires that any derivative software be made available under the same license terms that was granted. Additional restrictions cannot be placed upon the recipient of the software by the publisher. It also requires that a copy of the GPL license text be made available with every copy that is published.

The Mac version of xLights is published by a third party on the Apple App Store. The publishing on the App Store is a problem for a few reasions:

• A copy of the GPL license is not suppled with the product, instead a 3rd party license agreement is supplied.
• According to this license agreement, the publisher can only place ADDITIONAL terms on top of Apple's terms of license, and not defeat Apple's terms.
• The Apple portions of the License Agreement in the App Store is placing additional restrictions on the end-user and is in direct opposition to the GPL - specifically
  • It is not sublicensable
  • You're only allowed to use the software on Apple branded products
  • You are not allowed to copy the software
  • You are not allowed to distribute the software on a network to allow multiple users
  • You are not allowed to reverse engineer, disassemble or obtain the source code of the application
  • You are not allowed to create derivative works of the software

Whilst it is possible to do these things through a 3rd party means - going to Github, etc - the key here is that these conditions of the original software license MUST be provided as part of the grant of license - which is through the download of the software on the App Store.

The above can be corrected by providing the correct license agreement via the App Store, however there have been some high-profile pieces of software removed from the App Store as they attempted to have Apple change their App Store terms, and Apple refused to budge.

Therefore, if Apple is unwilling to accept the GPLv3 for the Mac version of xLights, I think it is prudent to remove it the App Store, and distribute it as a downloadable DMG or similar. This then keeps all released versions in line with the license agreement that all users and publishers of xLights and its derivitives are bound by.

[computergeek1507]

"xLights" is not a legal entity, there is no xLights LLC or anything. I personally don't understand who have legal right over the code, most Open Source project I am part of have a LLC or private organization that manages trademarks, licenses, and contributor agreements. Recent talk about removal of code I have contributed makes me want to know who have the overall rights over the code base. I don't like the idea of developers removing code from an "open source" project because of personal differences.