FreeCAD Being Sold for Profit by Microsoft?

[wandering3ngineer]

Dear All, I've just joined this forum because I noticed something weird. It appears that FreeCAD along with other opensource source software is being sold by Microsoft. I haven't followed all the way through, but this does look like a legitimately like microsoft's domain: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/freec ... verviewtab

See attached screenshot - accessing from Taiwan via desktop browser firefox. Seems this is true for other open-source software as well (e.g. Krita). Can someone confirm if I'm the only one seeing this?

w3ng

[Shalmeneser]

True.
Search : Microsoft Freecad

[user1234]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28997349
wtf!

Greetings
user1234

edit: typo

[GeneFC]

I am certainly not a fan of this. However, I believe it is completely allowed by the license terms.

MS is trying to follow the example of Apple by establishing a Microsoft Store to provide "safe" downloads. Apple takes it much farther for iPhones by requiring all apps to come from the Apple strore.

Windows 10 already tried to convince users to only get stuff from the "Store" (I never do), and I expect Windows 11 will go even more in that directlon.

The $4.99 is basically a handling and distribution fee.

Gene

[freedman]

This could be a good thing. The one thing Microsoft has is a bunch of programmers.

On the flip side of that, I do believe they would insert a ping (to MS) in their version.

[wandering3ngineer]

Linking to discussion on LibreCAD git.
https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/issues/1399

Not sure about the legalities vis a vis GPL. But in broad strokes the discussion on git seems reasonable. I've filed a complaint to Microsoft as suggested by one user.

w3ng

[yorik]

redistributing (or selling) LGPL software is not forbidden by the license. What is forbidden, however, is 1) modifying the software without making these changes available to users with the same license, or 2) removing any right the user already has over the software. In this case, selling without informing users that the same software is available for free elsewhere seems clearly removing some of those rights.

Note that it is not exactly MS doing this, it's an "appsmedia1", which is clearly abusing both the platform and users. I think reportind it as "misleading" is more than appropriate. If it doesn't work, we can see what else there is to do.

Too bad it's not possible to leave comments/reviews, the matter would be quickly solved

[Zolko]

So it DID happen ... well, was only a matter of time

There are 2 different aspects to this:

1) LICENSE : here, the LGPL applies and I don't know how that behaves in this case. Chances are that there is actually not much that can be done to prevent this.

2) TRADEMARK : here, if FreeCAD and its logo are registered trademarks, then the trademark holder can forbid to use the name and logo even if someone respects the license. This is the way Linux is protected: you can fork the Linux kernel as much as you want, but you might not be able to use the name and Tux-the-penguin.

So, the *REAL* question here is: is the name "FreeCAD" registered as a trademark somewhere by someone ? What about the logo ?

Code: Select all

FreeCAD 0.20, Libs: 0.20R26109 (Git)
© Juergen Riegel, Werner Mayer, Yorik van Havre and others 2001-2021
...

ping

ping

[mrdic]

Microsoft sells many of its devices with what they call Windows "S", which I presume is meant to evoke "safe". Win S can only install apps from MS' store, so free range FreeCAD would be off the table for those devices. The PCs aren't completely locked down, standard Windows can be switched or overwritten onto devices with Win S, but FreeCAD from the store is probably able to be installed to Win S mode. MS owns GitHub, interestingly.

[adrianinsaval]

It's not microsoft selling this, it's some random dude, as others have said FreeCAD is a trademark I think so one could report it for that, the other thing is that the license also requires that the scripts used for building the package be published, I have not seen a link to a script to generate a ms store app so I think it could be considered a violation. It's there a chance of getting an oficial FreeCAD release in the microsoft store to mitigate this crap?