

Ask HN: Can my GPL webapp be a paid iPhone app? - roschdal

I have created a webapp which I'm wondering if would be possible to turn into a paid app on the iPhone app store?<p>My web app is an open source multiplayer strategy game for the web. The app is released under the GNU General Public License.<p>I would like to turn this app into a web app for the iPhone, available here: http://www.apple.com/webapps/<p>However, the guidelines for the app store states the following:<p>- "You must either own all rights to your submission and the content displayed in or through the submission or have written authorization from the owner(s) thereof."<p>- "Your submission (and the content displayed in or through your submission) must not violate or infringe the intellectual property rights (including trademark rights) of others."<p>So do you think an open source civ-clone violates any of these terms?<p>My web app can be found on http://www.freeciv.net/
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Someone
1: I am not sure you understand what the App store is. The page you reference
is not the App store; it is just a page where apple promotes URLs of web
applications.

2: You probably are the best to judge whether your clone complies with those
requirements. Who wrote the code? Who created the graphics?

3: Finally, there is the issue whether cloning an existing application
infringes on somebody's rights. On the one hand the right holders probably are
aware of the existence of freeciv, and haven't acted against it yet. On the
other hand, you are saying you want to charge for using it. That may mve you
over a limit the right holders have set.

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jmount
I am not a license expert- but I am pretty sure if you can only release your
app as GPL (either it requires a GPL component you did not write or you are
unwilling to release it non-GPL) then you can not make it an iPhone app (Apple
seems to be hostile to this). In principle there is nothing wrong with
charging for GPL apps, so if it wasn't for Apple's license issues you would be
fine. However, if you wrote the app yourself (or somehow own it) then there is
nothing in the GPL preventing you from releasing a non-GPL version on the
iPhone app store (dual licensing).

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roschdal
Ok. The code has to be GPL licensed, because the webapp is based on an
existing GPL codebase.

Do you have any other suggestions for a business model? Alternatives to the
iPhone app store? Should I try the Android Market?

~~~
jmount
Actually now I wondering. It looks like GPLv3 is not compatible with the
iPhone (the anti-Tivo clause: [http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/why-free-
software-and-app...](http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/why-free-software-and-
apples-iphone-dont-mix) ) but I am less clear if GPLv2 is incompatible (or if
people just hope it is, see: [http://www.geoffeg.org/wordpress/2009/10/07/the-
iphone-and-t...](http://www.geoffeg.org/wordpress/2009/10/07/the-iphone-and-
the-gpl-v2-are-not-incompatible/) ). So you may want to look a bit deeper into
the license of the library you are using (LGPL, GPLv2, GPLv3 ...).

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roschdal
The web application in question can be tested here: <http://www.freeciv.net/>

