Re: [Ring] Project switched to GNU?

[Daniel Pocock]

On 01/11/16 07:01, Hans Bakker wrote:
> This is pretty bad and really a pity, and surely with reason it has
> been kept quiet.
>
There are two different concepts here:

- it is licensed under the GPL - that has always been true, even
SFLPhone, which came before Ring, was GPL:
http://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs/main/s/sflphone/sflphone_1.4.1-0.1_copyright

- it is now hosted on gnu.org: this presumably means that the SFL
developers are trying to engage more contributors to the project than if
they hosted it and tightly controlled it within their company.  It also
probably means the developers can spend more time coding and less time
worrying about how to run mailing lists, bug trackers and other resources.


> It basically means, that the product cannot be included in commercial
> products any more unless...you pay a license fee......
>

This is a different question that should probably be taken up on another
mailing list.

There are good strategic reasons for some projects to use GPL and many
of them are relevant to a project like Ring.

How would you feel if you were using a completely free and trustworthy
version of Ring but the person who you call with it is using a version
that has been bastardized by Facebook or Skype and fitted out with
spyware?  While your friend who installed that version may be happy with
those risks, you might not be happy about it.  If all derivatives of
Ring are free software, that means nobody can hide spyware in there.

Regards,

Daniel