Sigh. Another one bites the dust. As of version 0.50.3, Senuti, the popular iPod retrieval program, has gone payware, despite previous versions being GPL-licensed. The Google Code repository has disappeared.
I can’t really get angry at the author, although the temptation is there. I haven’t paid him a cent. He can do what he likes really. He’s obviously put a lot of work into the software, who could blame him for trying to get some reward for his efforts? It was licensed under the GPL, though, and it’s extremely bad form to “disappear” it. I don’t have a copy of the source, so I can’t distribute the 0.50.2 binary I have.
This pisses me off, yes – but it’s not even really anything to do with Senuti. It’s the fact that I can’t copy songs off MY FUCKING IPOD that I OWN. While there was a free program that worked so well, it was easier to ignore. Now that program demands payment and Apple’s contempt for its paying customers is rubbed in my face.
I hate this fucking shit, and the worst thing is that there’s no current acceptable alternative to iTunes/iPod. Maybe soon. Anyway, I will hang on to my copy of 0.50.2 until it stops working – no doubt, planning commercialisation, the author slipped a cutoff date in there somewhere.
For reference, the sha1 hexdigest for the last free release of Senuti (senuti_0.50.2.dmg) is b7c4121e5fbdd96aae1a483311d0fb7ea1915689.
Update: It is somewhat possible the author of Senuti is in breach of the GPL (Senuti uses several GPL libraries – gtkpod (corrected – it’s actually the LGPL libgpod, thanks Wincent) and Adium (stripped from latest distribution) for starters).
Update 2: It seems the offending GPL libraries have been stripped from the current payware distribution, possibly making the software able to be legally distributed after all. All contributors have been removed from the About screen of the new version and the Adium library has disappeared. Still pretty sleazy, but probably not illegal.
February 28th, 2009 at 6:02 am
I know nothing about Senuti, nor about what he links to. But a quick glance at the gtkpod page you linked is that, at least in that particular case he’s probably not in violation: if he’s linking against libgpod, that’s distributed under the LGPL, not the GPL.
The in-a-nut-shell summary of the LGPL is that you can link to the library from a closed-source program without any problems. What you are required to do to be in compliance is provide users with a way of re-linking should they choose to modify the LGPL’ed portion of the software (ie. the library). Typically that means providing source to the library and most likely object files for the closed-source portion on request; there’s no requirement to offer them for download, and there’s no need to disclose the closed-source portion of your product.
The Adium side of things, I have no idea what he’s using and under what terms.
As far as making the GPL’ed version of the source “disappear”, I have absolutely no doubt that someone out there has a copy of it. There’s nothing to stop somebody from putting a copy of that up on Google Code or wherever.
February 28th, 2009 at 6:09 am
I have no doubt either. The claimed over 1500 downloads.
I’ll have to do more research into the license issues, if I can be bothered, but you can see what was distributed here. As you point out, libgpod is indeed LGPL so is probably OK. However, Adium is definitely pure GPL, and plenty of their code is in there: look in senuti / external / framework / source / adium.
There are also numerous contributors listed who presumably donated their work on the understanding the software would remain Free.
The About screen of the 0.50.2 version of Senuti gives details of the included code:
Update: The Adium framework inclusions no longer appear in 0.50.5, and the contributors have been removed from the about screen. Maybe it is clean. Panic over for the GPL Police!
February 28th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I’d appreciate it if anyone in posession of the source to 0.50.2, filename source_0.50.2.tbz with SHA1 hash 26d96ee078ad9aa00dd319514430bb77fa8fab3c would make it available to me. I will then distribute it here along with the binary.
March 27th, 2009 at 5:53 am
I have a copy of the the 0.50.2 source code. I just compiled it today. and it works fine. Where would you like it sent or dropped?
March 27th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Rabid Bear, if you could just upload it anywhere you can think of, or send it to me in an , that would be fantastic. I’ll then host it here for anyone else who wants it.
I just don’t like things to just disappear, y’know? Thanks a lot for your help.
April 7th, 2009 at 4:43 am
I sent you an email with the download link.
Let me know if you have any trouble.
~ Bill ~
April 7th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Thanks very much Bill, I received that without problems and will have a look tonight. If all seems well I’ll host it here indefinitely for anyone else interested.
Thanks again – much appreciated!
April 10th, 2009 at 4:58 am
The file uploaded to me by Rabid Bear is available . It’s a 50M zip file of differing type, size and hash to the original .tbz, but I have no reason to doubt its authenticity.
Thanks to Rabid Bear for the upload.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:38 am
Geez, 50 meg, compressed, for an “iPod retrieval program”?
April 14th, 2009 at 1:00 am
That’s the source, and the original checkout is much smaller – the file I was sent presumably contains build-related temp files. However, I’m not familiar enough with Cocoa development to know which ones I can safely nuke.
If you’re just interested in the binary, it’s here (5.9M). One of the reasons I wanted the source was so I could distribute that!
June 20th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Thank you SO much, Sho! I was hoping someone out there had the wisdom to save/or republish the open version! Thanks again!
June 28th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
If for some reason Sho’s link goes down I also uploaded it to 4shared.com here: http://www.4shared.com/file/114588336/9e7a2aec/senuti_0502.html
June 28th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Hi guys, glad to help. Thanks Verwandlung, good idea!
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
When I try to use the free version of Senuti linked above, it crashes when I plug my iPhone in. Does that version support iPhone 3G or was support for it only added in the paid version?
Cheers!
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Danny: no idea, I’ve never tried it with an iPhone. Sorry but I can’t really offer any support; I have nothing to do with the program beyond offering an archive of its prior open source incarnation.
July 27th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
You guys are the best! A special thanks to you Sho – everything works perfect. Peter / Denmark
August 8th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I would also like a copy of the Senuti 0.52 source code so that I can post it here: http://wstein.org/senuti/
August 8th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
The source link posted above (from the comment on April 10) seems to be dead — any chance it could be restored?
August 8th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Sorry guys, I had moved the file as I prepared for a server move. I didn’t realise it was so popular! Restored now, go for it.
September 15th, 2009 at 4:10 am
thanx Sho, now i can use my friends music!
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 am
Awesome stuff. I was going ballistic when I realised that my iMac didn’t have Senuti anymore and I couldn’t get it for free…
September 30th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I’m posting a fast mirror of the source code here: http://wstein.org/senuti/
(links edited by Sho for clarity)
September 30th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Awesome William, it’s good to have a dedicated page. Thanks! I agree with what you wrote, btw – also very disappointed that “nearly every trace of the open source version has been wiped from the internet”, a tactic I find to be very far from the spirit of open source in general and the GPL in particular.
Since this fiasco I’ve started maintaining local mirrors of any and all open source projects I depend on/care about that could possibly do the same. For example, I don’t think Firefox will ever pull this kind of stunt, but who knows about Transmission, for example, or my favourite image viewer Sequential.
It doesn’t take much time or disk space to start mirroring these projects locally. I use this script to keep them all in sync. Without Rabid Bear’s help above, I wouldn’t have been able to get the source code for Senuti at all – I’ll be making sure that doesn’t happen again, and hope others are inspired by this incident to keep their own local mirrors too ..
October 18th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Wow! I love folks who help each other. This is my idea of how we can have peace on the planet. Does your version of senuti only work on macs? I have a pc and am desperate to back up my ipod for free, if possible. I see a bunch of sites offering senuti now for $19.95 and am concerned that some albums I owned but sold because I put them on my ipod would be lost to me forever.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
You, sir, are the man! I love the idea of mirroring popular free software. I hate when something brilliant sells out or just plain disappears. I wish there were more people on the Web with your mentality.
I agree, the Mac platform is very lacking in media players aside from iTunes… I wonder why? >_>
Windows users, thankfully, have Foobar2000. Extremely expandable and lightweight. There is a great iPod addon too, that does things iTunes should: convert files that are big or in incompatible formats (FLAC!) when syncing, fully configurable by the user of course. I recommend it to any Windows user.
And : search for iDump. That’s a great Senuti equivalent for Windows.
January 7th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Thank you very much!