oh1fss wrote: ↑Sun Apr 25, 2021 6:53 am
The power of true open source is that an open source project never dies. The development may freeze for a moment, but as long as there is the source code, anybody has the possibility to continue.
OpenGD77 is an excellent piece of software. Sooner or later it will catch developer interest.
Nothing prevents the current developers to continue. If there is good will, the current challenges can be conquered.
The problem is the additional clauses which Kai added to the GPL 2 license, and which all the developers (I think) agree with.
Specifically no commercial use of the firmware, and also no commercial derivations or versions of the firmware.
However, KC7RBW who is an expert, says that additional restrictions can't be applied to a GPL license.
AFIK, the opinion of KC7RBW is disputed by G4KLX, who has the same restrictions on MMDVMHost.
G4KLX says that no one can make commercial derivations of MMDVMHost, and also no commercial users can use it on their network.
AFIK KC7RBW is an expert in "Open Source Compliance", becuase its his job.
So commcerial companies can now take the firmware, which has taken thousands of hours of work by Kai, Me, Daniel, Colin, Alex etc etc and make their own version e.g. with encryption and sell this for $$$ to commercial users.
We already had a problem 1 + years ago, with a company finding a loophole to charge $50 extra for a GD-77 with the OpenGD77 firmware, because they said the $50 is an installation cost.
The time to install the OpenGD77 is probably 5 mins absolute max. So hourly rate for this company when installing the firmware is 12 x $50 = $600 per hour.
I just timed it an the firmware takes 30 seconds.
So really you could open the box, install the firmware and put the radio back in the box in 2 or 3 minutes easily
Pay per hour = $1500
There are already test cases in consumer law, which show that companies charging this are not actually charging for the installation, they are charging for the software
Or
If Danial, Colin and I work on SFR for which perhaps takes us 100 + hours (300 man hours)
I know Hytera charge $500+ for the SRF upgrade to their radios. So some company can again sell this for $500.
Remember commercial companies don't just download random firmware from the internet and install it on their radio, but they would buy a radio which has this feature and pay $400 as its cheaper than buying a Hytera
So everyone has to work for 100+ hours for free, and the some company makes $500 + many times
Would you work for 100+ hours for free and then say is OK for some company to make $10k + on your work ? Really.
So the core development team stops and the project ends
Yes people can play with the souce code and change the text and add a few small things. Perhaps even add Channel dual watch and some other things.
All the Italian devs, who are experts, now work on OpenRTX and M17.
I don't think KC7RBW said he would be continuing as main developer. I think he said he would delete his repo after he finished removing items which don't comply with the Open Source license
So unless the license is changed to prevent the commercialisation of the firmware, then I think its difficult for it to continue.
Also, even allowing constant access to the source code is potentially a problem, because some companies just ignore the law.
I don't know if its true, but I heard that perhaps some commercial hotspots use MMDVMhost even though G4KLX forbids this.