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kzhe ,

I always try to avoid these because of how they had held users data hostage on their calendar’s play store version, glad this happened so there can be a foss fork by more trustable parties. Yay!

MargotRobbie ,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

Part of the reason why I prefer to use open source apps whenever possible is because of this, you never really know if an app will be bought out by someone shady and start adding gross stuff to it, but open source apps can and will be forked.

Not an ideological reason, but a practical one.

dandu3 ,

Same shit company bought the pixel minimal watch face, and they’re now charging like 18$ PER WEEK for premium features.

I had already bought it thankfully and I kept my premium status but still. I was not happy

gogosempai OP ,
@gogosempai@programming.dev avatar

$18 per week?! Damn Netflix and Disney+ prices aren’t even that high.

dandu3 ,

Yeah, I was REALLY pissed off that the guy sold his app to this shitty company. Now this. I didn’t use the simple apps but I’ve heard of them since I was a pretty big f droid user.

They must give a lot of money to devs in exchange for ruining their work lol

Gooey0210 ,

Look, he got money, we got forks, the creator of the app might create a new project and run it on money they got from this sale

The company that purchased the app will soon find out that their whole userbase was foss people and they left for forks

ICastFist ,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

Time to download all those apks and keep them mirrored elsewhere, I fear for their future now

Sanyanov ,

Damn, I recently donated to them, and this is how it turned out.

Terrible to see.

gogosempai OP ,
@gogosempai@programming.dev avatar

Now that’d feel like paying for adware :(

Signal3r ,
@Signal3r@troet.cafe avatar

@gogosempai

So the most important question is - what happens to the F-Droid versions? Will the apps still be listed in F-Droid in the future, and if so, should they still be updated?

CrayonRosary ,

Noooooo! I love their gallery app. Guess it’s time to turn off auto-update on it.

Thank you for sharing this!

pewgar_seemsimandroid ,

NOOOOO

NiaTheCat , (edited )
@NiaTheCat@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    linuxdweeb ,

    I’m not a lawyer either, but the GPL doesn’t say anything about commercial use. Zipo can sell the code in the apps without having to ask permission from contributors. The only restriction is that they have to keep their modifications open source (which that Github response says).

    But the main point is that the Zipo people bought out the Google Play listing, giving them access to the millions of users who have those apps installed on their phones. They likely don’t give a shit about features/keeping the apps closed source. It’s just a purchase of the userbase, likely for shady reasons.

    This also means that forking the Simple Mobile repos isn’t even likely to accomplish much. Sure, it’ll put control of the repo in the hands of a more trusted party (which is significant), but since it’s open source anyways, it’d be easy to catch any attempts to sneak malware into the apps. And if all development effort moves to the fork, Zipo can still take that fork and redistribute it under the “Simple Mobile Tools” name.

    Ultimately, the fucked up thing here is that the original developer, Tibor Kaputa, sold out millions of users. Forking isn’t going fix that. Fuck him. The only thing that will fix this situation is if Google takes down their store listing, but that’s not going to happen. Hopefully F-droid does.

    BrioxorMorbide ,

    The only restriction is that they have to keep their modifications open source

    And since it’s GPL that any additions are compatible with the GPL, which the ad / tracking stuff they’re likely to add likely isn’t.

    And if all development effort moves to the fork, Zipo can still take that fork and redistribute it under the “Simple Mobile Tools” name.

    Only if they don’t add their own proprietary shit, and if they don’t, how would their “bully users to pay for features” business model work?

    According to github.com/SimpleMobileTools/…/241#issuecomment-1… “like 99% of the current code has been written by me and other paid devs, so no need to overreact the licensing thing” it seems like the remaining 1% is going to be ignored or possibly even removed if they think that leaving that in might open them up to DMCA claims by disgruntled contributors - which taking code from an open source fork would definitely do.

    linuxdweeb ,

    And since it’s GPL that any additions are compatible with the GPL, which the ad / tracking stuff they’re likely to add likely isn’t.

    That’s a good point, although I wonder if there are any ad SDKs that are GPL compatible? There’s no reason that couldn’t exist AFAIK.

    However, there’s also the much simpler scenario where they straight up replace the apps with something completely different. This company buys apps all the time, so I’m sure they have at least a few calendar, gallery, file browser, etc apps lying around that they can reuse.

    BrioxorMorbide ,

    "we specialize in acquiring under-optimized apps in an industry that is highly fragmented. We use our optimizing operations, deploy its technology, and generate cash flow from the apps. "

    “we developed an AI technology that knows how” “to monetize the right user at the right stage of their app experience”

    (everything-pr.com/zipoapps-tech-talk-with-the-ent…)

    Sounds like they just keep the apps around and try to squeeze as much money out of the users they have bought.

    AlijahTheMediocre ,

    Its opensource, assuming the new owners move it to a less favorable license just fork the last good version and continue from there.

    gogosempai OP ,
    @gogosempai@programming.dev avatar

    One of the devs has already forked it and plans to maintain the project.

    github.com/FossifyX

    lambalicious ,

    Finally, Kissinger is dead — but for the karmic balance, even SMT gets enshittified.

    AnActOfCreation ,
    @AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

    Looks like one of the maintainers/contributors has already setup a fork!

    github.com/FossifyX

    fne8w2ah ,

    Thank fuck.

    soot ,

    SOYJAK.PARTY WON

    https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/8eb5ada3-3025-4a68-887b-c5270a228f8b.pnghttps://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/2d4cd81d-cf35-4ebe-8204-c1f1de7a4393.webm

    soot ,

    SOYJAK.PARTY WON

    https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/8eb5ada3-3025-4a68-887b-c5270a228f8b.pnghttps://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/2d4cd81d-cf35-4ebe-8204-c1f1de7a4393.webm

    soot ,

    SOYJAK.PARTY WON

    https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/8eb5ada3-3025-4a68-887b-c5270a228f8b.pnghttps://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/2d4cd81d-cf35-4ebe-8204-c1f1de7a4393.webm

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