[Owncloud] OwnCloud Android App Open Source or Not?

[Randolph Carter]

Exactly the point which I wanted to raise as well. In my opinion, in
such a case as the owncloud app it needs to be clear where the money
goes exactly. Because why should someone work on something where
*somebody else* earns money for it?

It's not the contributing itself which is in question here; nor the fact
that there's no money for it - I think we all know that the real benefit
and reward of working on Open Source software lie somewhere else than in
money. However, if contributing means helping someone else to earn
money, without getting any oneself, that has the potential to squash any
motivation for contributing for free.

I don't argue that open source software cannot also be sold. I just want
to make the point that in the best interest of keeping everybody
interested in contributing, transparency of any such money flows is crucial!

Randolph

On 2013-08-30 15:06, Alessandro Cosentino wrote:
> Sorry to butt in on this conversation, but I believe the main point,
> on which Kelvin was confused when he asked those questions on IRC, was
> not addressed in this thread yet.
> Let me play his advocate here. We encouraged him to not fork the
> project and to rather work along the owncloud community to the
> existing app.
> And yes, almost all of us agree that "Selling free software" is the
> right thing to do.
> But his point (at least on IRC) was: if I help with coding, will I get
> a percentage of the money that users pay for the app?
> If not, who gets the money?
> On IRC we weren't able to address these questions.
> 
> Alessandro
> 
> 
> On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 3:09 AM, Jan-Christoph Borchardt
> <hey at jancborchardt.net> wrote:
>> In addition to what Frank said, you might find this article on
>> »Selling Free Software« interesting:
>> https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html
>>
>> »Many people believe that the spirit of the GNU Project is that you
>> should not charge money for distributing copies of software, or that
>> you should charge as little as possible — just enough to cover the
>> cost. This is a misunderstanding.
>> Actually, we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge
>> as much as they wish or can. If this seems surprising to you, please
>> read on.«
>>
>>
>> It’s similar if you look at some of the other apps interacting with
>> ownCloud, notably the mobile apps for the News reader.
>> There’s the Android app by David:
>> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.luhmer.owncloudnewsreader
>> And the iOS app by Peter: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iocnews/id683859706
>> I think it’s great that they develop both open source, and charge for
>> them too. And it’s worth it because the apps are really good!
>>
>>
>> So please be welcome and contribute: http://github.com/owncloud/android :)
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 12:45 AM, Frank Karlitschek <frank at owncloud.org> wrote:
>>> Hi Kelvin,
>>>
>>>
>>> On 29.08.2013, at 21:36, Kelvin Hammond <hammond.kelvin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm wanting to add CalDav and CardDav support to the android owncloud app and maybe some other features should I have the time to do so.
>>>>
>>>> The problem I'm running into now is that the app is for sale on the android market instead of free even though its open source.
>>>
>>> This is not an contradiction. The app is open source but also cost $0.99 in the store.
>>> The money is used to pay for some of the development that goes into the app. If you don't want to spend one dollar than you can grab the source code from github, compile it yourself and put it on you device. But I think it's friendly to support the development with $0.99
>>>
>>>
>>>> I've paid for the app on the market already only to find that it doesn't support contacts or calendar sync which is what I bought it for.
>>>
>>> Sorry for that. I think it was in the app description that it support access to files but no contacts/calendar syncing yet.
>>>
>>>
>>>> I'd have no problem doing it for free if the app was free but seeing as how the app isn't free who does the money go to?
>>>
>>> The money goes to the developers who write this open source app.
>>>
>>>
>>>> If I add these features am I allowed to fork the owncloud app and put it on sale on the android market?
>>>
>>> You are allowed to do that. It is is open source so you can fork it if you want. But I would recommend to not do that but to contribute to the existing app. The ownCloud community is friendly and open for new contributors, ideas and code. So I would recommend to look at the code on github and submit your extension and pull request. It's better to work together instead of duplicate work.
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot and let me know if you have any questions.
>>>
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> Frank
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Thank you,
>>>> Kelvin Hammond
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>>>
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