Synergy-core: Serial Key Required when software is open source.

Created on 5 Apr 2018 · 2Comments · Source: symless/synergy-core

Operating Systems

All OS's supported.

Synergy Version

1.8+ Tested

Steps to reproduce bug

Install app from open source. Get a "what is your registration key" popup.

Other info

As the software is open source we can easily reverse engineer this but the fact is since its GPL we shouldn't have to.

Source

duaneking

Most helpful comment

Synergy being Open Source, or even Free Software, doesn't preclude commercial licensing. Unlike e.g. Google Chrome (which is proprietary and not completely open) we just open source everything, including the serial key / license management code and branding, and trust the community to do the right thing (as several forks have done).

Please refer to the GNU (creators of the GPL) webpage on this topic:

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html

WONTFIX

nlyan on 10 Apr 2018

👎2 👍2

All 2 comments

Please refer to the GNU (creators of the GPL) webpage on this topic:

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html

WONTFIX

nlyan on 10 Apr 2018

👎2 👍2

@nlyan: You have completely missunderstod the FSF article on selling software. It does not in any way talk about licensing keys. It is explisitly discussing selling physical copies of the software, not serial keys.

Stallman have said numerous times in the Q&A section of his talks that Free Software which requires serial keys in order to operate, should be treated as if it was proprietary, and everyone should avoid it.

This issue just came up via a Mageia user reporting a bug via one of our mailing lists, and this bug repport was the most relevant search result.