Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fork

Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fork

Postby Akien » 31 Aug 2016, 21:57

Hi there,

You may know the 2D sprite editor Aseprite, which until recently was licensed under the GPLv2 (with a CLA), with binaries sold on the official website and on Steam. It was actually one of my references for a successful open source business model, as Aseprite is quite popular and most users are buying the binary version even though they could technically build from source.

A few days ago, the main developer (and full copyright owner, thanks to his CLA) replaced the GPLv2 licensed by his proprietary EULA, effectively making Aseprite proprietary. The source code is still available on GitHub, but it's now "shared source" and no longer "open source" (contrarily to what the README.md still stays as of this writing, but I don't want to sign the CLA to make a PR ;)).

With some Godot folks, we were quite stunned when we discovered the news today and decided to fork Aseprite at its last GPLv2 commit. You can find this new fork here: https://github.com/aseprite-gpl/aseprite
Our purpose is still not precisely defined, and is being discussed in this issue: https://github.com/aseprite-gpl/aseprite/issues/1
You are welcome to take part in the discussion, especially if you're interested in contributing to maintaining or further developing a libre community version of Aseprite.

As I mentioned in the above linked discussion, my purpose with this fork is first to gather all interested parties in one place, so that a community decision can be made about the future we want to give to Aseprite. So please partake in the discussion, express your opinion, and we'll see together how it goes.

As for the reasons that pushed the copyright holder to relicense, I must say that they are far from convincing. See this Twitter conversation for details about the (IMO) impulsive change. We should give it time though, as it could be that the author changes his mind and goes back to the GPLv2. Of course the CLA makes it hard for this project to thrive under the open source models we affectionate, but well we've also seen lone devs making a great job and producing software that benefits the community as a whole, so why not.
Godot Engine project manager and maintainer.
Occasional FOSS gamedev: Lugaru, OpenDungeons, Jetpaca, Minilens.
User avatar
Akien
 
Posts: 737
Joined: 22 Feb 2014, 13:14

Re: Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fo

Postby alexander » 31 Aug 2016, 22:03

Please join me in letting the developers know that this is not okay, and that we will not stand for the injustice of proprietary software. It's possible to contact them via email[0], Twitter[1], and Facebook[2]. We can also comment on the commit, or perhaps make a new issue on the GitHub site[3].

Our primary tactic must be to get the developers to understand our position, and convince them to convert back to the GPL. This is much more sensible than a competitive fork. But if it comes to that, we must also be prepared to undertake a competitive fork.

[0] <support@aseprite.org>
[1] <https://twitter.com/aseprite>
[2] <https://www.facebook.com/aseprite>
[3] <https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite/issues>
alexander
 
Posts: 65
Joined: 22 Jun 2012, 19:06

Re: Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fo

Postby Akien » 31 Aug 2016, 22:12

Please no, starting a fatwa against the developer on all existing contact channels will not be a good strategy to convert him back to the GPL. He has reasons for changing, and we must first hear his reasons and discuss about it. If you just go twitting and facebooking and mailing about how he hurt the world by changing the license to a proprietary one, he'll just stay on the defensive and argue that he owes us nothing as he did 99% of the code (which would be a valid argument).

A better strategy would be to discuss the points that annoyed him to the point of changing the license, and expose what are the true benefits of being open source, not what are the wrongs of being proprietary.
Godot Engine project manager and maintainer.
Occasional FOSS gamedev: Lugaru, OpenDungeons, Jetpaca, Minilens.
User avatar
Akien
 
Posts: 737
Joined: 22 Feb 2014, 13:14

Re: Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fo

Postby c_xong » 01 Sep 2016, 01:02

His reason seems to be a lack of upstream attribution in package managers. Seems like a very weak reason to take their ball and go home.

But I guess I can see where he's coming from; there's a severe disconnect between package managers and upstream in general. Most seem to silently make a package and then move on, and the only way I find out is basically via site analytics. It's especially frustrating when the package is buggy, their users complain and this all goes on in their little bubble community, but the problem is easily solved if they asked me.

Still, these are small complaints compared to the favour they're doing for me and my projects because at least it's more users, package management requires effort, and there's nothing explicitly wrong going on - it's FOSS and all. I'm super thankful that some package managers - like Akien and carstene1ns - do engage with upstream and it's very helpful.
User avatar
c_xong
 
Posts: 234
Joined: 06 Sep 2013, 04:33

Re: Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fo

Postby onpon4 » 01 Sep 2016, 02:58

Actions speak louder than words. Forking the program now was the right thing to do, and the next thing you should do is attract anyone who previously contributed to ASEprite to the fork. If the fork is successful, one of two things will happen:

1. The developer of ASEprite will change his mind and switch back to GPL; or
2. ASEprite will be beaten by the fork and become a relic of the past, just like Nexuiz was.

I suggest coming up with a new name to better differentiate the fork. Maybe something like "LibreASE" would do the trick, but a completely new name would be even better.
onpon4
 
Posts: 596
Joined: 13 Mar 2014, 18:38

Re: Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fo

Postby Arthur » 01 Sep 2016, 11:24

By the way, him changing it now because of packaging reasons is somewhat odd timing. Nowadays there's AppImage, Flatpak and Snappy packages that could be used if he set his mind to it. Additionally Gnome Software Centre, and possibly other user-facing frontends are making efforts toward making upstream more prominent, and if I understood correctly might even get direct links to make donations. So while I am myself (not speaking for SuperTuxKart, mind you) not a big fan of how things have been with upstream/downstream relations, things are changing and in my opinion for the better.
Hey pal, I took an oath for justice! "In happy days or tightest tights..." or something like that.
User avatar
Arthur
 
Posts: 1073
Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 00:49

Re: Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fo

Postby brmbrmcar » 28 Oct 2016, 23:22

Is it even allowed in the terms of the GPL to change it to EULA in later development?
brmbrmbrmbrmbrmbrmcar
User avatar
brmbrmcar
 
Posts: 357
Joined: 24 Oct 2015, 14:46

Re: Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fo

Postby onpon4 » 28 Oct 2016, 23:33

The copyright holder isn't bound by the terms of a copyright license.
onpon4
 
Posts: 596
Joined: 13 Mar 2014, 18:38

Re: Aseprite goes proprietary - Potential GPLv2 community fo

Postby beelzy » 02 Nov 2016, 15:58

Well, I might be able to help test OSX builds or provide them, but with all the stuff I'm doing for Krita and my game, I don't really have time for much else. I just recently got aseprite-gpl to build and run on OSX.
User avatar
beelzy
 
Posts: 44
Joined: 02 Feb 2016, 19:06

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron