Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko wrote in a blog post that it has sent a formal notice to Trump's Media Technology Group (TMTG) for illegal use of code on the Truth social network led by former US President Trump. It was previously pointed out that TMTG did not provide Truth's website code, which was contrary to the software license on which it was built.
Screenshot from: JoinMastodon.org
As required by Mastodon, the TMTG team must choose to comply with the AGPL license or stop using the software within 30 days from the date of the letter.
At present, although the Truth social network has not yet been officially launched, some netizens have found that its beta interface is highly similar to Mastodon, and some of the code of the website is directly copied from other competitors.
In itself, this is also the intended use of open source software. But as the Software Freedom Conservancy noted last week:
Applications (or websites) that use AGPLv3 software licenses must feed back their own source code.
In addition, the GNU Foundation, which develops the AGPLv3 license, says it aims to promote a better open source software community.
If you improve what others make, the other party should also benefit from your work.
And when the code doesn't belong to you, you shouldn't treat the software as proprietary.
Sadly, as Mastodon and Rochko reiterated on Friday, TMTG didn't choose the right approach, even trying to obscure the fact that Truth was based on Mastodon.
As of press time, TMTG has not responded to requests for comment from foreign media.
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