[General] TriCitizen new Tox client on Android

nurupo nurupo at tox.chat
Mon Aug 2 20:38:38 UTC 2021


Trifa includes c-toxcore and is licensed under GPL too. So you are also 
violating Trifa's GPL license too.
Also, I'm not sure what you meant by saying that Trifa was available as 
a binary. It makes no difference if it was available as a binary or not, 
it's GPL, and if you if you include it in your app as a dependency, you 
must comply with the GPL license.

> Everything I've read on this from real-world lawyers says copyright
> law trumps the GPL licence.
I'm sorry, but what you are talking makes no sense. Are you aware of 
what the copyright law is and what licenses are used for?

Under the copyright law, you are not allowed to use a work without 
permission from the copyright holder. Any such use constitutes copyright 
infringement and the copyright holder might file a legal suit against 
you.

If we ignore the GPL license of c-toxcore and Trifa for a moment and 
assume they have no license, just the copyright, then you are not 
allowed to use them until after you get permissions from *all* copyright 
holders of c-toxcore and Trifa to be able to use them in your app. 
(Actually, I think Trifa depends on some other GPL software, at least 
x264 but maybe more, so you would need to seek their permission too).
Did you get any permission from c-toxcore copyright holders to use 
c-toxcore in the TriCitizen app? As one of c-toxcore copyright holders, 
I can say that you did not, because I wasn't contacted regarding this, 
and without my permission you aren't allowed.

A license is the copyright holders telling that everyone can use their 
copyrighted work as long as they comply with the terms of the license.

The only terms you can use c-toxcore under are GPL. If you are not using 
c-toxcore under the GPL license, then by the copyright law you are not 
allowed to use c-toxcore at all, as a copyright holder (all c-toxcore 
contributors, including me) haven't explicitly allowed you to. Since you 
aren't allowed to use c-toxcore, by extension, you aren't allowed to use 
Trifa, since it includes c-toxcore.

Please resolve your GPL violation promptly.

---
Regards,
nurupo


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