Simple Mobile apps have been very popular among FOSS enthusiasts. I've personally been using the Gallery, Contacts and the Phone app since a few years now. It's a shame that it has come to this, will be on the lookout for their forks.
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I'm not a lawyer either, but the GPL doesn't say anything about commercial use. Zipo can sell the code in the apps without having to ask permission from contributors. The only restriction is that they have to keep their modifications open source (which that Github response says).
But the main point is that the Zipo people bought out the Google Play listing, giving them access to the millions of users who have those apps installed on their phones. They likely don't give a shit about features/keeping the apps closed source. It's just a purchase of the userbase, likely for shady reasons.
This also means that forking the Simple Mobile repos isn't even likely to accomplish much. Sure, it'll put control of the repo in the hands of a more trusted party (which is significant), but since it's open source anyways, it'd be easy to catch any attempts to sneak malware into the apps. And if all development effort moves to the fork, Zipo can still take that fork and redistribute it under the "Simple Mobile Tools" name.
Ultimately, the fucked up thing here is that the original developer, Tibor Kaputa, sold out millions of users. Forking isn't going fix that. Fuck him. The only thing that will fix this situation is if Google takes down their store listing, but that's not going to happen. Hopefully F-droid does.
And since it's GPL that any additions are compatible with the GPL, which the ad / tracking stuff they're likely to add likely isn't.
Only if they don't add their own proprietary shit, and if they don't, how would their "bully users to pay for features" business model work?
According to https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issues/241#issuecomment-1837837729 "like 99% of the current code has been written by me and other paid devs, so no need to overreact the licensing thing" it seems like the remaining 1% is going to be ignored or possibly even removed if they think that leaving that in might open them up to DMCA claims by disgruntled contributors - which taking code from an open source fork would definitely do.
That's a good point, although I wonder if there are any ad SDKs that are GPL compatible? There's no reason that couldn't exist AFAIK.
However, there's also the much simpler scenario where they straight up replace the apps with something completely different. This company buys apps all the time, so I'm sure they have at least a few calendar, gallery, file browser, etc apps lying around that they can reuse.
"we specialize in acquiring under-optimized apps in an industry that is highly fragmented. We use our optimizing operations, deploy its technology, and generate cash flow from the apps. "
"we developed an AI technology that knows how" "to monetize the right user at the right stage of their app experience"
(https://everything-pr.com/zipoapps-tech-talk-with-the-entrepreneur-co-founder-and-ceo-gal-avidor/)
Sounds like they just keep the apps around and try to squeeze as much money out of the users they have bought.