The ongoing saga of Hamster e-book converter

[kovidgoyal]

Hi all,

Some of you may recall that a couple of months ago a company named Hamster released an ebook converter. This was a closed source product that used calibre under the hood to do the conversion.

calibre is licensed under the GNU GPLv3, which means that if you use it in your product you must open source your product. We informed Hamster of the violation, and they promised to fix it, but now, more than a month later, they still haven't.

Read more about the situation: http://john.nachtimwald.com/2011/08/...ng-ripped-off/

On a personal note: What a bunch of parasites!

[Manichean]

Good luck to you guys in getting this situation cleared up.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Hi all,

Some of you may recall that a couple of months ago a company named Hamster released an ebook converter. This was a closed source product that used calibre under the hood to do the conversion.

calibre is licensed under the GNU GPLv3, which means that if you use it in your product you must open source your product. We informed Hamster of the violation, and they promised to fix it, but now, more than a month later, they still haven't.

Read more about the situation: http://john.nachtimwald.com/2011/08/...ng-ripped-off/

On a personal note: What a bunch of parasites!

I saw John's story on Teleread: http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/d...john-schember/
It was quite informative. As it turns out, these particular rodents are Russian. That complicates matters...I wish you success in eliminating your rodent issue. I suggest D-Con.

[Halo]

Do you think the Software Freedom Law Center might be able to assist you? Their web site says they provide "pro-bono legal services to developers of Free, Libre, and Open Source Software."

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by Halo

Do you think the Software Freedom Law Center might be able to assist you?

John already tried them, IIRC they weren't of any help.

[linux_author]

i hope this doesn't cause you to fork - Calibre is a great app - 'best of breed'; shameful what other programmers will do, but even the big corps have committed the same sin (MSFT [cough, cough])

keep up the good work and the good fight! public exposure is the best remedy in this case, it appears

(interesting about FB's languid response; expect more shenanigans of this type on FB)

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre is licensed under the GNU GPLv3, which means that if you use it in your product you must open source your product. We informed Hamster of the violation, and they promised to fix it, but now, more than a month later, they still haven't.

Thanks for making Calibre, but I would be hesitant to tell anyone that they must do anything.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

Thanks for making Calibre, but I would be hesitant to tell anyone that they must do anything.

It isn't so much "you must do this", but rather "We'll let you use this, if you do that". In this case, hamster more or less agreed to the terms, and then promptly ignored them and did what ever they wanted.

[Penforhire]

We need to raise some public consciousness, maybe get larger tech blogs to cover this story. You put too much effort into Calibre to just let it slide.

[user_none]

Slashdot, Teleread, MobileRead and a few other sites are or have run the story.

[user_none]

I was contacted by HamsterSoft on August 15, 2011. They have taken down the Hamster Free Ebook Converter and have told me they are working to bring it into compliance with the GPL. They said it may take a few weeks. I will post more information as the situation develops.