Has Minitube gone non-Free?

3 replies [Last post]
Jayn
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Joined: 08/27/2010

I have been waiting for the Minitube 2.1 sources, which fix the VEVO bug, to be posted. However, when I went to the site for the Ubuntu Software Center, which has the latest 2.1.2 binary release of Mintube, it lists the licence as proprietary. This is perplexing, but can anyone confirm or deny this? If it is based on older Minitube code, isn't it even impossible as per the GPL for it to be made non-Free?

I hope it is just a matter of delay in getting the code up, and that Ubuntu Software Center is wrong about the license.

Reference: https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/minitube-ubuntu/

onpon4
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Joined: 05/30/2012

The Windows and OS X binaries are proprietary, but the source code is free. Maybe the Ubuntu binary is proprietary, too (it wouldn't be surprising).

In any case, it really doesn't matter, since everything in Trisquel's repo is compiled in-house anyway.

icarolongo
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Joined: 03/26/2011
Flavio says:	
Jul 5, 2013 at 11:31 am	

For now you can stick to 2.0. Sources for 2.1 are coming soon.

http://flavio.tordini.org/minitube-2-1-adds-channel-subscriptions#comment-11822

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

>If it is based on older Minitube code, isn't it even impossible as per the GPL for it to be made non-Free?

If the copyright holder of a GPL'd project decides to make it proprietary unlike anybody else he can. The older versions however remain GPL'd. Of course usually in such a case they don't allow the download of the free version any more.

I've been suggesting that the FSF could start a mirror project to safeguard against such nasty license changes. It should especially target projects that require copyright assignment and thus are most vulnerable. Disk space is dirt cheap.