Re:Plagiarism of my open source app ChatSecure
by jancborchardt on Tuesday August 14, 2012 @06:25AM
(#4380177)
Still, it needs to retain the copyright notice and credit the original author. What the plagiarist in this case did is use it as if it was Public Domain.
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Re:Plagiarism of my open source app ChatSecure
by fdr on Tuesday August 14, 2012 @06:39AM
(#4380217)
Given the audience that'd buy this software, I doubt that just dropping in a LICENSE file -- which is all that is needed -- will materially impact this borderline scam. Unlike the 4-clause BSD, which was not tractable, the modern 3-clause I'm quite sure the author used does not say in any way "must display this copyright in the most obvious place." If the repackager simply includes the file, I believe he will meet BSD provisions, per the letter of the contract. I see two ways to look at this:
* If one really doesn't like things like this to be within the grounds of the copyright, don't use BSD. Use GPL.
* On the other hand, what odds are there that the GPL will be reliably enforced against such small fry actors? Maybe you are best choosing a license based on what makes the most sense for the project's advancement anyway.
Re:Plagiarism of my open source app ChatSecure
by icebraining on Tuesday August 14, 2012 @06:39AM
(#4380216)
What makes you say he didn't? Have you downloaded the app? Because OP says he hasn't, so he can't possibly know.
BSD doesn't force you to put the copyright notice and credit in the app description page.
Re:Plagiarism of my open source app ChatSecure
by jancborchardt on Tuesday August 14, 2012 @08:06AM
(#4380460)
They did the same for Matt Gemmell: https://twitter.com/mattgemmell/status/235302914258792448