Closed source software on TWN?

CLOSED This issue is closed by siebrand

gerrit:114978

It has come to my attention that the mobile apps developed by Wikia, Inc. are translatable via Translatewiki.net. This wiki's Project:About states that "Translatewiki.net is a localisation platform for translation communities, language communities, and free and open source projects" (emphasis mine). Wikia's mobile apps are not open source, only the i18n files are (see [1]). Thus I request that "Mobile - GameGuides", "Mobile - Lyric Wiki" and "Mobile - Wikia Pad" are removed from translatewiki.net until they are open-sourced, because if we support one closed source project, then we have to support multiple such projects and soon we can provide translations for Microsoft's next operating system.

I've asked Wikia to comment.

Any news on this? This is an important matter that can set precedent for similar future cases.

Guy Incognito, it's not the first case: we also had Okawix in 2008 or 2009, but after the issue was raised they clarified their licenses (though the format they use is still not the best one, Zeno rather than OpenZIM). So I suggest to give Wikia the benefit of doubt and wait a bit more (those files are 2 years old anyway, as far as I can see).

Hi guys - sorry for the late reply. These caused a lot of thinking and discussions inside Wikia and as several parties are involved it's more complicated than it seems. We're still not fully done with it, but will be soon. We are currently checking if and which of the named extensions can be released under an open source license (like all other Wikia extensions). If we can't open up the source, we'll pull the affected extensions from TWN not later than end of this month.

Thanks for the answer, Tim. Let's discuss if we see other "full disclosure" options before "just pulling" if you find out that Wikia cannot open the application source.

Sure. In any case, I'll update this thread as soon as possible with further infos to keep everyone posted.

I’m sorry to be such a bug about this matter, but has there been any further information from Wikia regarding the software? It’s been nearly two months since the creation of this thread and there’s been little response from Wikia, as far as I’m aware.

I've been asking Wikia for the past month. They've promised me to reply twice now, but no luck so far. I've indicated that I'm not happy with the long response time.

Bump? Is it possible for TWN to just temporarily disable new translations until Wikia open sources the app(s)?

Sure. For clarity, I suggest one of the concerned users sends a patch commenting the relevant lines of the configuration.[1]

The mobile apps for Wikia have been disabled for translation.