VK3KYY wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:47 pm
Not that it is necessary, as the license was always totally invalid.... but the code has been rewritten.
"totally invalid" is a stretch. I've described a remedy for the AMBE problem (merge it into the firmware at upload time instead of build time) and the only part of the license that's invalid is the addition of a non-commercial clause, which the license itself doesn't allow adding. Your license from anyone who contributed (or from whom you copied with permission, as with MMDVM) is GPL-2.0 unless they specified other terms or have since granted you other terms.
Without that license, you only have permission for code you wholly wrote yourself, and that isn't a derivative of someone else's work. With the license, you are free to do what you're doing, but the license requires that you share the source code.
The whole point of GPL-2.0 is to ensure that nobody who distributes binaries can also keep parts of it secret. "Free as in Freedom" means that the code stays Free, and explicitly not that someone can't make money off it, just that the price of making money off it is also sharing the source.
And yes, the license explicitly disallows additional restrictions.
It's ironic that you decided to make your code private because you didn't like that someone was selling installation services on eBay. They may have violated the eBay Terms of Service and the invalid non-commercial clause on the license, but there was no evidence that they violated the terms of the GPL license. While you, unless you and the others actually clean-room reimplemented every line of GPL code in the entire codebase that you didn't write yourselves or obtain separate terms for, would actually be infringing copyright if you don't provide the source code for every build you shared, as I've politely but firmly requested.
I find it plausible you may have replaced my own contributions by now. I find it impossibly unlikely that you replaced all of the MMDVM code. If I have to I can decompile the firmwares to show if you have or not. That sounds like a lot of work I'd rather not do.
Please just do the right thing and make OpenGD77 open again. If it makes you feel better, also change how the AMBE blob gets integrated so that the binaries you post can be fully licensed and individuals have to integrate the unlicensed blob themselves.
I believe you can make a good choice here without being coerced. Is it really worth copyright infringement to keep some dude on eBay from making a quick buck from someone who doesn't want to learn how to do it themselves? Have you even accomplished that if you're still publishing firmware builds?
Especially if you're thinking about just giving up because this is not worth the frustration, release the code so that others can take up the reins like you did when Kai was no longer interested. I think the project is better off in your care though, and I hope you don't give up.