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Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 4:05 am
by asimpereira
Today I came across this interesting app in the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... nginespack

It has bundled all UCI engines for Android with NO Chess board or UI and is being sold for $1.29!!

"Free updates forever." <-- Classic! :-)

Developer's site: http://juanluisfb.blogspot.in/

Re: Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 4:11 am
by Albert Silver
asimpereira wrote:Today I came across this interesting app in the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... nginespack

It has bundled all UCI engines for Android with NO Chess board or UI and is being sold for $1.29!!

"Free updates forever." <-- Classic! :-)

Developer's site: http://juanluisfb.blogspot.in/
Good find. The crook is selling Komodo, Stockfish, Gaviota, Arasan, and others.

Re: Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 4:27 am
by abik
asimpereira wrote:It has bundled all UCI engines for Android with NO Chess board or UI and is being sold for $1.29!!
Quite a few were taken directly from my UCI and XBoard engines for Android site where I make them available for free.

Re: Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 7:25 am
by Aaron Becker
Albert Silver wrote:
asimpereira wrote:Today I came across this interesting app in the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... nginespack

It has bundled all UCI engines for Android with NO Chess board or UI and is being sold for $1.29!!

"Free updates forever." <-- Classic! :-)

Developer's site: http://juanluisfb.blogspot.in/
Good find. The crook is selling Komodo, Stockfish, Gaviota, Arasan, and others.
This is exciting. No one's ever misappropriated my software before.

Re: Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 10:09 am
by Evert
Well, it's not illegal to sell binary distributions of GPL'ed software, as long as the GPL is followed (ie, the source is provided free of charge, or a link is given to a place where the source can be downloaded).

From the look of things this is not done, but I haven't checked in detail. Of course, the GPL only applies to engines that are released under the GPL, so not to Komodo and some others on that list.

Re: Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 10:53 am
by velmarin
On the one hand calls $ 0.99,
obtained for free elsewhere on the same page.

Anyway prices Android apps have nothing to do with what is asked for the personal computer.

Order 30, 50, 60 euros for simple chess engines or other programs, is an abuse.

Image

Re: Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:23 am
by hgm
Evert wrote:Well, it's not illegal to sell binary distributions of GPL'ed software, as long as the GPL is followed (ie, the source is provided free of charge, or a link is given to a place where the source can be downloaded).
Is this also necessary if you redistribute an already public binary, in which you did not change anything yourself?

Re: Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:38 am
by Evert
I can't think why it wouldn't.

The clause applies to the original binary, and I don't think you redistribute it under different conditions (unless you own the copyright to the software, but that doesn't apply here).

Re: Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:31 am
by Kyodai
Albert Silver wrote:
asimpereira wrote:Today I came across this interesting app in the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... nginespack

It has bundled all UCI engines for Android with NO Chess board or UI and is being sold for $1.29!!

"Free updates forever." <-- Classic! :-)

Developer's site: http://juanluisfb.blogspot.in/
Good find. The crook is selling Komodo, Stockfish, Gaviota, Arasan, and others.

Albert

Are you sure this person has been prosecuted and judged?

Otherwise it's not so mature or wise to use the word you did...

Re: Selling Chess engines?!

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:09 pm
by lucasart
And he distributes my engine DoubleCheck (old version) in binary form only, without the source code and without the GNU GPL, nor a place where the user can download the source code or view the license agreement.

I don't care about the money, but I do care about that :evil: