Clarify license

Could you add a README, LICENSE or COPYING file with the actual license used? It should be GPLv3 iirc, but it would be good to have it in the actual repo.

[RoundSparrow]

Isn't it MIT license? EDIT: The opening page on the App itself also says some portions are "Apache 2.0" license. Further, the home page of the website says Plugins are MIT license. And this:

---- the .java source file headers are --

• TV-Browser for Android
• Copyright (C) 2013 René Mach (rene@tvbrowser.org)
  *
• Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software
• and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to use, copy, modify or merge the Software,
• furthermore to publish and distribute the Software free of charge without modifications and to
• permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
  *
• The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
• THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
• OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
• LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR
• IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

---

It seems a non-standard license, as Google search engine has no phrase matching some of it that I could find.

I am concerned that it says "Distribute the Software free of charge without modifications" - normally such a clause would require the name to be changed. Not to misrepresent the software (a Trojan version under same name, modified). Where, as it is written, it implies you can not distribute IN ANY WAY a modified version.

[Thorsten1976]

I think its more a closed source project than an open source project - I don't understand why the project source is on github?

The app is developed and maintained by one developer, and the license prohibits any further development (you can only use the code for some private modifications).

Even adding additional build scripts was rejected (e. g. additional use of Studio and/ or Gradle with a CI like Jenkins; Google also has dropped Eclipse support recently). So its impossible to use newer libraries from the repository or to improve the code, add features or enhance Android platform integration.

I guess its intentionally unwanted to support the development. The interpretation of the propietary license implies that you can use and modificate the code and reuse it to build a whole new TV app that not implies it is TV Browser (otherwise the code might not be hosted at GitHub as a open source platform), but it is not allowed to modify or even improve the TV Browser app itself.

On the other side (based on static code analysis, missing patterns, missing test coverage, ignored platform guidelines), the code base is nearly unmaintable in the current state.

[RoundSparrow]

I'm not so pessimistic. I view that the license is a poor translation. I suggest that it is intended to be MIT or Apache license and a German to English translation with edits was used. As for them not accepting code changes, that's not uncommon when things are early and the labor is all free and over-committed. Or, it seems, the license might have been accidentally applied from a different project the developer was working on.

My request is that René Mach (rene@tvbrowser.org) just grant us an Apache 2.0 or MIT license on it. Remove all the .java source headers as they are written.

[ds10git]

No it's not. It's based on the MIT license but it forbids to sell TV-Browser in any way and it also forbids to release changed versions based on the source code. Besides that you are free to use self changed versions for yourself but don't have the right to give it to someone else.

Am 25. Juli 2015 19:10:19 MESZ, schrieb Stephen Gutknecht notifications@github.com:

Isn't it MIT license?

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[RoundSparrow]

Ok, so you are René Mach (rene@tvbrowser.org) - and informing us that this is intentionally restricted?

[Thorsten1976]

What a pity. Even development support, fixing bugs, or fixing existing lint errors (new rule sets are only available in the build tools of Studio) is impossible, cause the code base depends on an unsupported platform (> 1,5 years). Google dropped the support - and new features of M are not supported any more by the IDE.

Every open source license allows reuse of code, if the code is not part of a commercial product, the original licencse/ author is acknowledged (GPL2/3), and the new code base is also freely redistributed under the same license terms.

In fact: This license is not an open source licence at all - so why its on a open source platform like GitHub?

Sure there are in-app purchaes dedicated to the main author - but this code part could be extracted to a module to apply to OS rules.

[ds10git]

That's mostly right (especially the last sentence) but it clearly is an open source (not free in the understanding of the FSF) software because your able the read the source code and also use it for yourself. There won't be any changes to the license at least until the 1.0 version.

Am 25. Juli 2015 21:16:37 MESZ, schrieb Thorsten1976 notifications@github.com:

I thinks its more a closed source project than an open source project -
I don't understand why the project source is on github? The app is
developed and maintained by one developer, and the license prohibits
any further development (you can only use the code for some private
modifications).

Even adding additional build scripts was rejected (e. g. to use with
Studio and/ or Gradle; Google has dropped Eclipse support recently). So
its impossible to use newer libraries from the repository.

I guess its intentionally unwanted to support the development. The
interpretation of the propietary license implies that you can use and
modificate the code and reuse it to build a whole new TV app that not
implies it is TV Browser (otherwise the code might not be hosted at
GitHub as a open source platform), but it is not allowed to modify or
even improve the TV Browser app.

On the other side (based on static code analysis, missing patterns,
missing test coverage, ignored platform guidelines), the code base is
nearly unmaintable in the current state.

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#7 (comment)

Diese Nachricht wurde von meinem Android-Mobiltelefon mit K-9 Mail gesendet.

[RoundSparrow]

It does seem short-sighted, given there is an Apache 2.0 licensed Android app right here on Github that already has integration for other TV show listings that this app does not. I was going to work on integrating the backends. https://github.com/UweTrottmann/SeriesGuide

[ds10git]

Well it's simply not so easy. TV-Browser receives the TV data directly from the TV and radio channels itself with a clear rule to only allow access to the data within TV-Browser. With slight modifications the source code of TV-Browser could be used for illegal data access therefor changes are forbidden to make clear that I'm not responsible for such a change. Accessing electronically stored data without the consent of the rights owner is forbidden in Germany (§ 53 Abs. 5 UrhG) and therefor TV-Browser cannot be open to access data from uncontrolled sources. Maybe I'm a little too obsessed with the data rights issue, but I would be the one to be held responsible.

Am 25. Juli 2015 22:06:27 MESZ, schrieb Stephen Gutknecht notifications@github.com:

It does seem short-sighted, given there is an Apache 2.0 licensed
Android app right here on Github that already has integration for other
TV show listings that this app does not. I was going to work on
integrating the backends. https://github.com/UweTrottmann/SeriesGuide

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[Thorsten1976]

I think its a specific problem with private German broadcasters united in the pseudo-regulatory VG Media and their exclusively written copyright laws.

So the codebase could be moved the a maintable free flavor, and a non-free flavor (even closed source), that provides the programm data of VG media broadcasters - like in the desktop app.

Then it would be possible to add program descriptions and images from the speficic VG Media broadcasters (e. g. in-app purchases as implemented in the app mentioned above). But build flavors are impossible with the deprecated Eclipse ADT.

[Krawei]

Dear devs,

have been a progress (under the surface) regarding this topic in the meantime?

Has something changed for the better?

Thanks for your great work!

Kind Regards,

K.