Stockfish clones in the AppStore: it's becoming a plague...

[jdart]

Hi Jon,

If a GPL App Store app provide a link to the source in the About screen would that satisfy the license?

No, according to FSF: http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/v ... 77486.html

[Steve Maughan]

Hi Jon,

Thank for the clarification.

If the Apps are not in compliance with the GPL agreement then that changes everything.

Does Apple acknowledge that all GPL apps sold by others in the App Store (i.e. not their authors) are in violation of the GPL? I would have thought that Apple must bear some of the responsibility for the violation.

Best regards,

Steve

[jdart]

Does Apple acknowledge that all GPL apps sold by others in the App Store (i.e. not their authors) are in violation of the GPL?

I believe they do .. the remarks from FSF were in the context of a video player app that included GPL software and Apple removed it.

[bretti]

A new app with a Stockfish engine (and own GUI) is

Majestic Chess Pro
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id542306493
You cannot see variations or valuations in normal game play against the app.
In analyze mode you see only the first line of stockfish above the board - but here it covers the board - ugly!

I thought it could be a port of the wchess-engine from kittinger (remember Majestic Chess for PC and Pocket PC) but it is stockfish...

Don´t pay for it, the original Stockfish is better!

[JuLieN]

A new app with a Stockfish engine is

Majestic Chess Pro
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id542306493
You cannot see variations or valuations in normal game play against the app.
In analyze mode you see only the first line of stockfish above the board - but here it covers the board - ugly!

Don´t buy!

I've stopped counting them: half of the "new" chess Apps are Stockfish's sources severed of their original credits and badly recompiled by crooks from Thailand. Many are deffective and obviously untested by guys who can't even play chess. A few weeks ago I even saw one of those clones for sale at $29.99...

:/

[bretti]

Yes, I have seen that very expensive app as well but here you can´t see it at the app store because Majestic Chess has it´s own GUI and graphic - not that bad but Stockfish is even better so there is no reason to buy this app.

[mephisto]

Three new clones released today exactly all the same but under three different names,
Chess Hero
X Chess Pro
Chess Mania Pro
All three cost £5.49

[jshriver]

These "authors" are violating GPL IMO as I can't find sources anywhere.
Martin

Guess it depends on how it interfaces with the engine. If the engine is separate then they can charge and keep their GUI closed source, just think of the Fritz interface for example. It's commercial but can call 3rd party engines via UCI/xboard.

If the app has the engine code hard coded into it, then agree it's a violation.
It's always been a tricky question.

When in doubt I look at it like this:

* Is the OS code completely separate? Then you're fine
* Does your code link to a library or code statically (this including it in your executable). Violation
* Doe you link dynamically and include the OS code as a .dll, .so, etc. Then you're fine.

Things may have changed and also depends on the individual license, I was going by GPLv2.

[yanquis1972]

Three new clones released today exactly all the same but under three different names,
Chess Hero
X Chess Pro
Chess Mania Pro
All three cost £5.49

unbelievable

if you can catch that instantly, how is it apple, who i thought was considered OVER-intensive in their regulation of what can pass at their appstore, completely missed it? shouldn't it have been caught automatically even, for someone to examine?

tords always come across as a really chill guy but he has to be upset at the idea of people getting scammed for something he wants to give away for free.

[JuLieN]

Wanna pay $19.99 for yet another clone of the otherwise free Stockfish? Then Chess 4 Chess by Nga Tran Thi Thuy is for you:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chess-4- ... 82591?mt=8



This one has something original though:

Rated 12+ for the following:
Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity
Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
Infrequent/Mild Simulated Gambling
Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence

Seriously, if those $20 burn your pockets you'd better send them my way and get the original Stockfish instead.