Hi Georg,
Thanks for your reply.
This is a tricky situation that would need to be investigated more
deeply to come up with a qualified final ruling.
From reading your mail I got the impression that it is likely they are
viola ting the GPL. Not
because they are selling GPL software -- that is perfectly legal --
but because they
deliberately seem to hide information about the freedoms associated
with the application.
That's the same conclusion I've come to. In the GPL FAQ it says that it isn't allowed to require that anyone who receives the software has to register and buy a copy (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowRequireFee) But the launcher does exactly this, it requires users to register after the trial period expires. Also, they make a difference between users who've baught a copy and those who didn't: Only the registered users can launch the app through the launcher after the trial period has expired. But doing so, would the software be free any longer? I don't think so.
So it seems likely they are violating the clauses of paragraphs 1 and
3 of the GPL; do they
distribute it with source code? If not, where is their written offer
to do so? Is a copy of
the GPL in the distribution in a reasonably visible location?
The only way to get the sourcecode is over their website. There's a tiny link on the bottom of a subpage with a fontsize smaller than normal. In my opinion, they again try to hide important information. They also display the GPL during installation of the program, so they do at least not violate the GPL in this aspect
There's another thing I've just noticed: The source code of their launcher is not available, yet they've released the whole package under the GPL. This is clearly a violation of the GPL, isn't it?
For general license questions, you can always mail licensing@gnu.org. If you seek assistance by the FSF to deal with potential license
violations, you can always contact us directly.
As you seem to live in Germany, germany@fsfeurope.org might be the
best choice for you.
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
Regards, Tim Kosse