GPL Violation
 

Del

Did you send him an eMail? When I asked him for the source code via eMail, he sent it to me.

Del

I don't have it anymore.

I am that other User ratfink wrote about.

I asked him for the Source, because I was interested in how it worked (I do the German translation of Acquisition at http://acquisition.draketo.de, and I got a reg# from him for that).

At the time he sent me the link http://acquisitionx.org it was already outdated (but only about one month).

At that time I thought him just too lazy to update the code. I pulled it down via download whole website of iCab.
Since 0.966 is a really far step from 0.851, only giving that version of the code is somewhat strange.

I still hope he'll change his attitude, for Acquisition is great, and I don't know if that level would still be kept, should he stop working at it.

Hmmm... well Dave is a little lost to say the least... Behind his conspiracy visions and paranoïa, he coded a popular frontend to LW used by many fellow macintosh users. The problem is that he can't take critics! I asked him many times to follow the LW basic configs (number of ultrapeer, chat, browse host, requery...) but he is afraid of his own users reactions... I don't know how you should react regarding GPL, putting pressure on him by sending the link of this thread could help, as he will delete posts on his own forum. For now I encourage ACQX users to NOT pay ACQX registration fee (pirate it) or switch to LW. This guy is getting payed by other persons' open source work.... Criss, réveille Dave !

Set Dave an ultimatum. For example tell him via eMail & via ACQX forum to send you the source code within 2 weeks or you would contact the FSF.

Del

Well, the next step would be to try one of the LimeWire developers. Although I do have a copyright on a few lines of LimeWire code, I would prefer to leave it up to LimeWire to answer to this. The person to contact at LimeWire would probably be Greg Bildson ( gbildson at limepeer.com ).

I'm not sure if LimeWire has any contact to Acquisition-Dave, but maybe they have can get the source code a little easier.

Del

We've been going through some of the same girations. It seems like Dave is not so keen on releasing a properly working up to date codebase.

One way or the other, we are going to resolve this issue.

Thanks
-greg

Dave gets so much email that legitimate communications can end up in his junk mail--I never heard back from him when I'd offered some money a few months ago . That doesn't seem malicious to me.

Hope this gets resolved to keep the opensource idea effective.

Del

Del

Maybe he just hasn't replied to you because you are an annoying whiner and he can't smack you in person like you deserve. I got the code when I asked back at ACQ .94 because I asked nicely and waited patiently. I didn't go crying all over including the message boards like some little girl who doesn't get the doll she wanted at the toy store.

Nobody likes a ratfink...

Calm down Mactraderboy, are you Porfiry's boyfriend or anything? Are you living on an other planet? Dave IS too lazy concerning respect of its users (dictatorship in his forums and all) and the open souce, something HAD to be done. Calmos le grand, don't take it personnal, and BTW I have nothing againt you the first question was a "joke" K?

Merci;)

The GPL says Dave has to give out the source code whenever somebody requests it, - if he doesn't do that immediately, he is in violation of the GPL.
If I ever found out that anybody creates software based on code that I released under terms of the GPL and intentionally ignores requests to make the source code available, I would enforce my copyright immediately and sue the creator of that software.

Del

Does anyone have an update on this thread? I'd like to get ahold of the Acquisition source myself. I did send an email to Dave requesting the source a few days ago and I have not received a response. :( If anyone else has received the source code lately I'd just as well get it from them since that seems like it would be easier.

I should note, however, that not all of Acquisition is required to be GPL'd. Dave went to a lot of trouble to create two independent programs, one that interacts with the LimeWire core (a bridge), and another (the GUI) that interacts with the bridge. The bridge is launched and run as an independent application by the GUI and they communicate with each other via pipes. By doing this the bridge needs to be GPL'd, but the GUI does not.

I think that Dave was pressured to release the GUI under the GPL and has done so. I wish that he'd be more forthcoming about sending out the source when it is requested though. Especially the bridge source which is required to be GPL'd.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I'd really like to see some recent source code (I've already looked at acquisitionx.org), so if anyone has something recent, then let me know.

Ditto to your request, kuwannet. I read about the pipes months ago on xlife. Do you still have the link?

ratfink--can you find the thread on http://www.sciforums.com/f72/s/forum...?s=&forumid=73 where Dave replied to you? I read it before, but can't find it today.
Sure hope this gets/is resolved.

No I don't, but it was a long time ago. I think it was actually a discussion of this sort in xlife's forums about GPL violations (I thought the Acquisition GUI violated the GPL). Dave was able to clarify how Acquisition works and said that he was going to be releasing the GUI part of Acquisition under the GPL.

If you go to http://www.acquisitionx.org then you can get the source code for an older version of Acquisition (I think it's v.80 something), however I've noticed that the source is not complete. There are parts of his bridge that are missing.

It's actually the bridge part that I'm most interested in right now. From what it looks like he's really made it so Acquisition could be easily plugged in to another network (OpenFT, or eDonkey, etc.). All you'd need to do is write another bridge that conforms to the same protocol and then you could plug it into Acquisition pretty easily.

If anyone gets the source then let me know.

Last time I saw that bridge it was fairly LimeWire-centric. I doubt you could use it for anything else without rewriting it completely.

Del