Re: [Enigma-devel] Engima for the iPhone/iPod Touch

[Ronald Lamprecht]

Hi,

Geoffrey Gallaway wrote:
> > See <http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/131752> for a more in-depth
> > explanation of this.
> >
> > Another potential problem would be that as a typical (unmodified) iPhone
> > will only run code signed by Apple, it would be impossible to legally
> > distribute GPLv3 code onto the iPhone (section 6 of version 3 of the GPL
> > licenced under version 2 of the GPL or above; version 2 doesn't have
> > this protection; however, with a project with a licence like that,
> > there's always a risk that it will choose to move to version 3 (which is
> > possible, apart from some GPLv2-only levels), leaving a possible iPhone
> > port in the lurch even if you did manage to develop it somehow
>
> I realize Enigma could switch to GPL v3, at which time I would have to 
> remove the Enigma port for the iPhone from the app store. But, as you 
> mentioned above ("there are a lot, and many of them are unlikely to 
> consent to a change of licence in any case") that seems unlikely.
>
> I believe one of the intents of the GPL is to make the source code 
> freely (as in beer) and easily available to anyone and make it easily 
> modifiable under the same license. Would I care if someone grabbed the 
> source to Enigma for the iPhone, added some features and put it up on 
> the app store under a different name? Nope. Would I care if they charged 
> for it? Nope, that's the way capitalism works! :)

As stated in March I priorized the last month on the 1.10 release. But 
nevertheless I checked meanwhile the iPhone port from several aspects 
and I will very likely concentrate on a "port" directly after the 1.10 
release.

Maybe I should tell you that I have a strong relationship to this 
technology with more than 20 years of Objective-C experience, even 
working on OS X as a senior developer and engagement manager for the 
company itself.

But besides the obvious legal purposes discussed here, there are some 
other inherited agreements, that need to be considered. They would 
likley course trouble if Enigma would be ported to the iPhone. Actually 
they would likely cause the whole Enigma project to terminate at once. 
Please don't ask me about details, as I am currently trying to solve the 
conflicts.

Please let us concentrate on an "official" Enigma iPhone "port". Those 
who would like to contribute should drop a personal mail to me.

Concerning the idea of a rewrite from scratch I should mention that this 
would cost many, many thousands hours of labour and great deal of knowledge.

Greets,

Ronald