this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Not to mention TeleMessage violated the terms of the GPL. Signal is under gpl and I can't find TeleMessage's code anywhere.

Edit: it appears it is online somewhere just not in a github repo or anything

https://micahflee.com/heres-the-source-code-for-the-unofficial-signal-app-used-by-trump-officials/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

violated the terms of the GPL

Well we don't know that, the terms say that you need to make the source available to people who got the binary. Either ship them together or ship a written offer for obtaining the source with the binary. You do not have to make the source available to the public (but any of your customers later could).

To verify your claim we would have to get the binary from them, and check if source or an offer for it was included.

Edit: The above is true for GPL2, but it seems Signal is under GPL3, in which distribution of offers of source have been curtailed a bit compared to GPL2, if I'm reading Section 6 here right

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

I'm pretty sure that the licence also requires that you link to the source code. You can't just have it up "somewhere" and just expect people to find it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

Yep. Relevant sentence bolded by me below

6d) Convey the object code by offering access from a designated place (gratis or for a charge), and offer equivalent access to the Corresponding Source in the same way through the same place at no further charge. You need not require recipients to copy the Corresponding Source along with the object code. If the place to copy the object code is a network server, the Corresponding Source may be on a different server (operated by you or a third party) that supports equivalent copying facilities, provided you maintain clear directions next to the object code saying where to find the Corresponding Source. Regardless of what server hosts the Corresponding Source, you remain obligated to ensure that it is available for as long as needed to satisfy these requirements.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

The requirement in the licence is that the source code or a link to it is distributed along with the binaries

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

"yeah my code is open source, it's somewhere on this site I'm just not gonna tell you where it is."