Review of the last 14 months...

[sjb007]

I'm afraid it is looking increasingly bleak for SweetHome3D from my point of view. Space Mushrooms (oddly named AI Photo Editor Lab SRL on Apple) are seemingly not supporting the original, free GPL licensed application in any meaningful way. They appear to have gone closed-source only - they haven't made any commits to the sourceforge code repository. If they purchased the copyrights from Emmanuel then it is entirely their right to go closed source, and the GPL is not protection against this. The GPL does allow someone to fork the last GPL'd code and release a fork. Any changes to that fork would have to be GPL only, and I believe that those changes could not then be included in the closed source versions as that would violate the GPL of the new commits.

The only thing Space Mushrooms have paid attention to is the application channels they can derive "premium" subscription fees from. Want updates? New features? Bugfixes? It looks like you will have to pay to play. Of course this leaves Linux users out in the cold as there is no common way to get subscription fees out of us, even if we were willing to pay YABS (Yet Another Bloody Subscription).

The website is still running, and SH3D 7.5 can still be downloaded (for now), so I suppose there is that small mercy. My advice is to download it and enjoy 7.5 while you can, and keep that download safe.

Oh well. It was nice while it lasted.

[dorin]

It was nice while it lasted.

The show can go on! (or must ??? [:-?] )
What I think we need:
1. Desire, determination, and a lot of pro bono work;
2. A team, a team leader, and a community;
3. A path and a goal;
4. Infrastructure (a website, a forum, etc.);
5. Since nothing is free, we need donors, sponsors, and so on;

[obelisk79]

It is very unfortunate. Perhaps some people could fork the repository and continue open source development.

Ultimately, they should be releasing their new versions on sourceforge per GPLV2 rules.

[dorin]

Maybe the devil isn't so black after all.
As long as you care, you could be a team builder.

[sjb007]

Ultimately, they should be releasing their new versions on Sourceforge per GPLV2 rules.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I've just been around a long time.

That isn't how copyright works. If they purchased the copyright from Emmanuel, then it is perfectly legal for them to release their code and future modifications under a proprietary license only. They couldn't include other peoples GPL code. They would either have to negotiate with each of those people for the rights to their contribution, or strip the GPL-only code out. This is tricky, because you can't have someone who just stripped code out, then re-implement the functionality - their knowledge is tainted by viewing and removing the GPL code.

I looked at the code base commit authors, and I don't think Emmanuel accepted external contributors except one for a brief period very early on. I don't know if he ever credited code committed by him to someone else. This issue is one of the reasons for Contributor License Agreements. It is so companies can pursue dual-licensing their products, (i.e. a Community edition, and a Commercial edition), and fold community contributions into their commercial application under the proprietary license, and avoiding having to open source their secret money-making sauce.

What the GPL protects is anyone taking the currently available GPL code base (7.5 in Sourceforge) and building it and releasing a derived application. This can only be released as GPL, because only the copyright holder can distribute under different licensing terms.

If someone were to do this, they would also not be allowed to call it Sweet Home 3D (or something too similar) because that is a registered trademark. I checked WIPO and Sweet Home 3D is registered to Space Mushrooms. It has been since 2019 which is a bit of an eye-opener!

[dorin]

It has been since 2019 which is a bit of an eye-opener!

Not really.
At the end of the full document

Transmission totale de propriete n° 0928584 du 06/09/2024 : BOPI 2024-41 du 11/10/2024 - Beneficiaire : SPACE MUSHROOMS S.r.l.

Indeed it need a lot of work on every aspects (name, logo, graphics, look and so on).
Sincerely, I hope it won't be necessary.

[sjb007]

Ah, I didn't click through to that link. I got fooled because there was another Sweet Home 3D trademark that expired in 2019 that listed Emmanuel, and this one that only mentions SM. I also didn't click through to the original French version where that important little note is located.

[dorin]

Disclaimer: I am not a programmer. I have no experience in this field.
As a precaution, I will try to make my own version, for personal use, especially for Linux.
Not for any other reason, but because I still have new plugins to make.

[Keet]

As a precaution, I will try to make my own version, for personal use, especially for Linux.

You are not the only one, and I am a professional developer (although not in Java).

Anyone notice the ridiculous (artificial?) increase in forum post views?

[sjb007]

I hadn't, but now you point it out, those numbers do look ludicrously high. Maybe there is a new army of lurkers!