Re: Threema is now free software AGPL?

[Ali Reza Hayati]

This is good news. However, we should see what would be their reaction 
to their mobile/desktop app being forked and used to create new clients 
using their servers. And, is their server source code libre yet?

Signal apps' source codes are available as well but they don't let us to 
create a libre client. They have Google Play Services implemented in 
their apps which makes their software nonfree and they don't let us to 
remove them and create a libre client and, for example, publish it on 
F-Droid.

Also, they are a paid service, which is wonderful for a libre project 
and I hope they remain a paid service as it's an example for other 
services that "free software" is about liberty, not price. However, 
people like me who live in sanctioned countries can't pay the price, 
even if it's as low as $2.25.

This can be fixed by federating the messenger. Just like how Matrix does 
it. There's a special paid server/instance with support and high 
speed/quality and there's other servers/instances which can be free or paid.

I never tried Threema but releasing their source codes under an strict 
libre license such as AGPL will definitely bring us many information on 
how it works and how good it is, hopefully.

On 21/12/2020 12:12, Ade Malsasa Akbar wrote:
> Hello, Free Software Community. Today, I got a surprising news from 
> Threema saying "Threema is now open source" [sic][1][2]. They say 
> further "[...] Threema apps’ source code is publicly accessible starting 
> today. It is subject to the AGPLv3 license [...]". I am happy with this. 
> As far as I know, Threema is praised and recommended as secure messenger 
> (although is/was a proprietary software) 2nd place between the free 
> software Signal and Wire by a security review site[3]. But I want to 
> know what is your opinion and what is FSF's stance on this news. Thank 
> you very much.
>
> With respects,
>
> Ade
>
> --------
>
> [1] https://threema.ch/en/blog/posts/open-source-discount
>
> [2] 
> https://web.archive.org/web/20201221083018/https://threema.ch/en/blog/posts/open-source-discount 
> (archived)
>
> [3] https://www.securemessagingapps.com/about
>
>
>
>
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--
Ali Reza Hayati (https://alirezahayati.com)
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