Breaking the GNU agreement

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  • Sorry if this has been posted before, But according to the rules of the GNU open source agreement the applications cannot be sold. I have bought what I did not know was open source from ebay (It does not say it in the auction), This is the listing http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWNX:IT

    Did you guys knoe about this?, The company behind this is known as CashGang.

    They have 2 websites http://cashgang.net/ and http://cashgang.co.uk/

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  • Well, that is quite a WTF moment

    You are correct, Construct is not meant to be sold like that (even if for hilariously low price that barely covers the cost of media and packaging). I'm sure the developers will get riled up about this.

    As for that poor sucker that actually bid on the product... *facepalm* This program is free, just download the latest release, sheesh!

  • All the CD's they send out are password protected, they make an executable which runs and installs DX9 plus the default installer for Construct. It also containst 20 tutorials that come from the scirra website and forums plus executable games.

  • Methinks some legal ass-whooping is in order?

  • I wonder if their intent was to provide a complete package for people without Internet access (or with 33.6k modems). The low price seems to suggest that; just enough to cover for the packaging and media.

    Still, nobody should be able to sell anything without the original author's consent.

  • Actually this is pretty close to legal. The way the GNU license is set up, you may charge a price for the postage, cd, etc. All the seller must do is make sure the source is included. I've seen this done hundreds of times with Gimp. So basically if your stupid enough to buy open source software its your own fault. All we can do is make sure everyone knows its free.

  • Pretty strange!

    That auction has expired, but:

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390176553854

    Also, most of the description has been copy-pasted from the scirra site. <img src="http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-argh.gif">

    Also, they misspelled 'dispatched' in their important notice.

  • Do you mind listing the executable games and tutorials you said it comes with? Also, Wow, and WTF!

  • They have a screenshot of my game This Cursed Rock on the "box."

    This is pretty shitty if you ask me. I tried reporting the item but I don't know if the report went through because I don't have an ebay account.

  • Newt, I think the difference would be that they pass it off as their own. (at least that's what it sounds like, I haven't checked)

    That they're taking other people's games is definitely illegal.

  • I am not at home atm but I will post the contents later, No source code is included.

  • Huh... turns out I did have an ebay account. Weird. I don't remember ever signing up for one.

    Anyway, both of the remaining items have been reported.

  • you guys should really sue them!!!

    thats my opinion!

    you cant let them sell YOUR work thats just terrible

    and if that does not work than take matters in your own HANDS!!! just hack their websites or their bank accounts or something....(no just kidding )

  • *BLINK*

    Geez those are the same guys that change me for sunlight!

    But seriously I am glade you reported it to eBay. Wonder what they will do about it? In general eBay is light on punishment because they get some of the profits. On second thought eBay should turn over their share of the profits to Construct.

  • My understanding of the GPL is a bit murky, but I think that as long as the cost is reasonable, and the source code is included or made easily available, it's legal do distribute works for a fee. That said, I don't know about auctioning. And it seems that the source code is not included...

    I take issue with the renaming of the program, which is certainly questionable in my book. It's probably the only modification made, but certainly is a modification, and makes it subject to Copyleft. All of the screen shots show 'Game Creator' in the titlebar instead of 'Construct'.

    It's certainly shitty in my book as well.

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