Tell HN: FOSS and FLOSS software illegally on sale in Microsoft Store

2 points

5 years ago

Yesterday LibreCAD user found that there is un-official 'publishers' which sells "LibreCad 2" and other free & open-source software via Microsoft Store.[0,1]

Yorik van Havre's first reaction was:

> History repeats... Fortunately the community can be quite powerful in those cases[2]

> At least here they didn't rebrand the app and clearly state that it is open-source. Looks like a lawyer's work...[3]

But after few minutes of search we discovered[4,5] there are much more similar cases, and much worse there are half-rebranded FOSS/FLOSS too:

- BRL-CAD as "BRL-CAD" by 'Alef_Soft‬'

- LibreCAD as "LibreCad 2" by 'Alef_Soft'

- FreeCAD as "FreeCad for Windows" by 'appsmedia1'

- Scribus as "Scribus Indesign" by 'Alef_Soft'

- darktable as "DarkTable LightRoom" by 'Alef_Soft'

- Lightscreen as "ScreenShot Lightscreen" by 'Alef_Soft‬'

- GIMP as "GIMP - Image Editor PRO" by 'Yellow Elephant Productions'

- GIMP as "GIMP 2.10 Pro" by 'varapps'

- OpenTTD as "OpenTTD" by 'RetroAppX'

So, if you know other FOSS & FLOSS software which is on sell in Microsoft Store — let us know[6] & ”Lets report them!”[7]

[0] https://twitter.com/AcikKaynakci/status/1452610914331545604

[1] https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/issues/1399

[2] https://twitter.com/yorikvanhavre/status/1452713161728081923

[3] https://twitter.com/yorikvanhavre/status/1452713161728081923

[4] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1452713226546843649

[5] https://twitter.com/AcikKaynakci/status/1452713662804897797

[6] https://twitter.com/OSArchOrg/status/1452748736535355394

[7] https://twitter.com/yorikvanhavre/status/1452716221477146637

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