GTranslate: unclear license for modules off Drupal.org

edo888 has gotten CVS account to become co-mantainer of Google Translate (see #614838: Offering to become co-maintainer of Google Translate to create a Drupal 6 version of the module); In his CVS application I pointed out he should not create a project that duplicates another project functionality.

Should not the project be unpublished, also considering what reported from bonobo?

I know that what I am reporting is a different issue, but in #613418: edo888 [edo888] I clearly stated that he should not create a project with the same purpose of another existing project; he obtained a CVS account to co-maintain an existing project, but then created a project for which he would not have obtained a CVS account.

Which brings up the question: what offline conversations, if any, took place to lead to the new project?

Why didn't edo888 think to ask before to create the new project considering that he was not going to not obtain a CVS account for the project Gtranslate?

I also send a message to Omar (the maintainer for Google Translate), asking to comment on this report.

Hello Omar.
I am writing you to ask a question about ed0888. He got a CVS account to be co-maintainer of Google Translate, but then he created GTranslate, which is a module with the same purpose of Google Translate.

As he would not have obtained a CVS account to create Gtranslate, I am trying to understand the reason he decided to not continue to co-maintain your project together you.
Did you have a different opinion about how the code should be written? Did he want to change the code for your project, and you didn't agree on the changes?

Please comment on http://drupal.org/node/644738.
Thank you.

kiamlaluno
Drupal.org site maintainer

Currently, the website page has:

Q: Is GTranslate Pro for one domain name only?
A: Yes, for an additional domain you need to make a new purchase.

Which could be a clear GPL violation. Looking at the code, it appears the only difference between the "pro" and the "free" versions is a variable, which would mean that the documentation is misleading, and the code is mostly OK.

Hi,

Please find my comments at http://drupal.org/node/644754

Regards,

Edvard

As reported in #644754-2: GTranslate links to a non-GPL version of the code:

GTranslate Pro version is a separate product which is not licensed under GNU/GPL. GTranslate is licensed under GNU/GPL.

I am changing the title because there are two distinct issues with the project.

Hello everyone,

Edvard requested to co-maintain the module which was fine for me but then he started to advertise for his professional version of the module which I don't think is GPL so I sent him and reverted the module's name and page to its old name.
Obviously, this lead to the creation of his GTranslate.

Thanks for your reply, Omar.

IMO, it's clear that edo888 as co-maintainer of Google Translate tried to prevaricate Omar, who has more rights on deciding about the code of his module.

I think that GTranslate should be unpublished.

Now that I seen the other posts and read the whole story, I am revoking edo888's CVS access to Google Translate module.

I propose that GTranslate is marked as unpublished.

As edo888 created a project well knowing that he should not have created it, and that I was not giving him a CVS account just to create a duplicate of Google Translate, I propose that his CVS account is revoked.

@KiamLaLuno - we don't unpublish project pages because that makes the update status module go weird. Also, there is not (yet?) consensus on blocking people for creating duplicate projects so we shouldn't block this user for that.

Abuse of our gpl policies is a legitimate reason to block a user, but it's not clear what rules were broken there.

Now that the link is removed from the project page I think this issue is fixed.

Also, there is not (yet?) consensus on blocking people for creating duplicate projects so we shouldn't block this user for that.

I was referring to the CVS account, not the user account. I was not thinking to block the user, indeed.

It is also worth to notice what reported by bonomo in #644754-21: GTranslate links to a non-GPL version of the code.

@greggles: Edvard has created GTranslate because I removed the "Pro" version link from Google Translate page.
He's basically got himself a Drupal CVS account to sell his commercial work not to offer the community some help.

Omar, you have removed not only the link (if that was the case), but the whole description, and you didn't respond to my emails.

Omar, you have removed not only the link (if that was the case), but the whole description.

Omar is the maintainer; if you do make a change without his consensus, he is free to revert the change.

Edvard, I had to revert my module to its original name until we're done discussing things over e-mail.
IMO, "you didn't respond to my e-mails" is exaggerated. You sent me your last e-mail Nov. 23rd and created your duplicated project Nov. 27th.
Things don't go this way Edvard.

By code committed in Google Translate too I mean that the same code that has been committed under GTranslate has been committed first under Google Translate from edo888, who is not Google Translate maintainer.

He's basically got himself a Drupal CVS account to sell his commercial work not to offer the community some help.

Perhaps so, but now he knows that it's not allowed and will have to maintain the project without linking to his site. So, this is "fixed."

under GTranslate has been committed first under Google Translate from edo888, who is not Google Translate maintainer.

Perhaps so, but that's how forks work.

This feels a lot to me like you guys are just trying to find something so you can block his cvs access. He did some stuff the wrong way, but we give people more than one chance before blocking them.

@edo888, at this point my only suggestion would be to redo your web page describing the modules to clearly indicate that the "pro" module is in no way related to the Drupal (and Joomla, and Typo3?) modules other then functionality. As is, it seems as if the "pro" version is a superset of the GPL'ed modules with additional restrictions, which if I understand you is not the case.

I am moving this issue as result of cleaning-up of the Drupal.org webmaster's queue components.