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WhatsApp's interoperability agreement doesn't allow GNU (A|L)GPL licenses (developers.facebook.com)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by starman to c/[email protected]

37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Relevant parts:

Partner represents and warrants that it shall not introduce into WhatsApp’s Systems or Infrastructure, the Sublicensed Encryption Software, or otherwise make accessible to WhatsApp any viruses or any software licensed under the General Public Licence or any similar licence (e.g. GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL), GNU General Public License (GPL), GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)) containing a "copyleft" requirement during performance of the Services.

Partner shall not: (i) combine Sublicensed Encryption Software with any software licensed under any version of or derivative of the GNU General Public License (e.g.; GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL), GNU General Public License (GPL), GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) in any manner that could cause, or could be interpreted or asserted to cause, the Sublicensed Encryption Software or any modifications to the Sublicensed Encryption Software to become subject to the terms of any version of or derivative of the GNU General Public License or other copyleft open source software

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Partner represents and warrants that it shall not introduce into WhatsApp’s Systems or Infrastructure, the Sublicensed Encryption Software, or otherwise make accessible to WhatsApp any viruses

The technical definition of a "computer virus" is actually quite narrow, and true viruses are rare these days because they are passive and slow compared to more modern malware types.

A strict, literal reading of the text says that all other kinds of malware are acceptable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Paragraph 3.1.5. expands on that though:

To transmit, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.