GoldenDict GPL Violations ( List of Violators - Companies and Individuals)

[ghost]

GoldenDict Desktop is being sold by a Chinese Company called Eudic : https://www.eudic.net/v4/en/app/eudic @eudic

Also an individual from China called "nonwill" is selling the software as freeware violating GPL. "nonwill" did not contribute with a line of code but has more than 80.000 users of her private fork and asks for "donations".
"nonwill": https://autoptr.top/gdocr/GoldenDict-OCR-Deployment/

What is even more disgusting from "nonwill" is that she adds spyware and even modifies user's dictionaries at will. For example, some mdx dictionaries are irreversibly modified/deleted. Her software is MALWARE ! https://forum.freemdict.com/t/topic/9164

I complained to "nonwill" why she does not comply with GPL and she made a post:
https://v2ex.com/t/804545

Here we can post any other GPL violators to expose them !

[nonwill]

Just put an email contents from marreromarco here who is versatile in forum.freemdict.com which is hosted by scammers and political prisoners.
And, I will no longer follow this issue for that I have discussed it with @vedgy before.
诈骗犯乱独分子--Marco Marrero子.zip
反诈骗反犯乱独--蛇鼠一窝垃圾-medp7060(tovaremeterio).zip
所谓自由词典社区两个user的邮件--乱独势力和诈骗分子的典型套路.zip

[vedgy]

His software is MALWARE !

@marreromarco, do you have proof of your "MALWARE" claim? The link you posted leads to an empty page. Even if it worked, most people don't understand Chinese.

which is hosted by scammers and political prisoners.

Public opinion in most countries sympathizes with Chinese political prisoners and would trust them more than sites approved by Chinese government.

@nonwill, your posts disappear after a while. So our conversation in #1383 appears one-sided.

And, I will no longer follow this issue for that I have discussed it with @vedgy before.

This sentence appears to suggest that I don't mind your GPL violation. In fact, I am not happy at all about it. I am just not willing to undertake any action on my own. But if a broader protest against GoldenDict GPL violations emerges, I'll be on the free software side.

[nonwill]

@vedgy
Thank you for reminding.
I will never be sympathizes with scammers and political prisoners.
And, the 80.000 users are all free and I only accept voluntary donations.

@nonwill, your posts disappear after a while. So our conversation in #1383 appears one-sided.

My view still remains that as we discussed before: as an individual developer, I will not host my changes up again without addressing the blatant infringement issues of commercial companies. But if things changed, I will change too.

SO, let me away far from the scammers and political prisoners for now.

[ghost]

@vedgy @nonwill
According to Wikipedia: " Programs are also considered malware if they secretly act against the interests of the computer user. "

nonwill's GoldenDict++ secretly modifies the user's dictionaries permanently to cause damage. A concrete example:

.mdx dictionaries published on FreeMDict are changed permanently and made unusable on purpose. "nonwill" secretly modifies .mdx files to destroy them without telling anything to the "owner" of the dictionary.

Details here: https://forum.freemdict.com/t/topic/9164/

"nonwill" permanently damages the mdx files and puts a number to the “police” in China in the description of the dictionary.

Many .mdx dictionaries from FreeMDict and Pdawiki.com are secretly modified by nonwill.

"nonwill" became a dictator who modifies user data without consent ! Hence, his software should be clearly called MALWARE !

[vedgy]

The link you posted leads to an empty page. Even if it worked, most people don't understand Chinese.

For some reason FreeMdict Forum's web pages don't load in my system Firefox. But I could access the forum page from Tor Browser and very roughly translate some posts with Google Translate. Obviously the language barrier will hinder communication.

And, the 80.000 users are all free and I only accept voluntary donations.

Knowing the number of users either requires phoning home (meaning spyware if w/o consent), or it is the number of downloads (fine, but probably an overestimate).

"nonwill" permanently damages the mdx files and puts a number to the “police” in China in the description of the dictionary.

What happens if a user opens this "police" number link in non-Tor browser in China? Police storms the user's house? :)

[medp7060]

@vedgy @marreromarco @nonwill

"nonwill" has hard-coded commands in the GoldenDict++ software to replace the "freemdict" string with "12339" and the "pdawiki" string with "96110" in the data of dictionaries without any warning. This sometime will make the dictionaries not work properly (e.g., when the names of .css or other dictionary files contain any of the two strings).

Nowill did this in revenge because two forums, the freemdict (https://forum.freemdict.com/) and the pdawiki (https://www.pdawiki.com/forum/) have revealed that GoldenDict++ has violated the GPL of GoldenDict.

Nowill has been personally attacking anyone who has raised this concern of GoldenDict++.

The two numbers are telephone numbers for police reports of any national security issues. "nonwill" always responded/replied to queries in the forums anonymously, trying to mislead the public who have little knowledge about this. "nonwill" called these people she/he does not like "scammers" and "political prisoners" despite they are normal, ordinary users of GoldenDict.

"nonwill" also claimed that the release of GoldenDict in the ru-board (http://forum.ru-board.com/topic.cgi?forum=5&topic=30250) is a fake one and has been widely spread this in the Chinese community.

"nonwill" even has given the GoldenDict++ a new Chinese name and made people think it is of her/his own work.

[xiaoyifang]

GoldenDict Desktop is being sold by a Chinese Company called Eudic : https://www.eudic.net/v4/en/app/eudic

I have not seen a connection between eudic and goldendict ,any evidence?

and I suggest to limit the disscusion to GPL ,but not politics.

[ghost]

@xiaoyifang

There is a post on FreeMDict that shows the connection between @eudic and GoldenDict:
https://forum.freemdict.com/t/topic/670

They openly use GoldenDict code but sell a closed-source software and do not mention GD anywhere in their website. They should share their profits with @vedgy and @Abs62 !

@eudic makes a lot of money stealing GD code. They are not poor:
https://www.eudic.net/v4/home/profile

[vedgy]

What about https://www.pdawiki.com/forum/thread-44300-1-1.html? Is that a GPL violation too or is there a source code download link in that forum thread?

[medp7060]

No source codes were provided in the forum. I guess it was just a re-post of the built from:

#1081

#1081 (comment)

The author did quote the text, although failed to give the source. I got it by Google.

[vedgy]

No source codes were provided in the forum. I guess it was just a re-post of the built from:

It's the other way around. The GitHub post links to that pdawiki forum thread. That's how I learned about this version of GoldenDict. Without a way to obtain source code, this must be a GPL violation too.

[medp7060]

Oh, I did not know that. But here is the download link, which may have the source codes in the share folder of the package. I am not a programmer so cannot tell.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/zwmcct20jahjx1k/GoldenDict.zip/file

[vedgy]

Looked into the archive you linked (Linux version) and found no source code, only binaries. If the source code was available, someone would surely mention it explicitly.

[vedgy]

This Windows 10 store spyware also violates the GPL (see #1319).

Proving that a program has malicious features is not necessary to shun it. If a program is proprietary, verifying its trustworthiness is orders of magnitude more difficult. Many GNU/Linux users, but few Windows and Mac users, understand the risks of running binaries from untrusted sources.

[masterrite]

if there's an up-to-date build of goldendict I wouldn've used nonwill's stuff at all

[michaelbeijer]

Agree, I am also using nonwill's Windows build, which is actually fantastic. I don't know how to build the latest version from source for Windows.

[loyukfai]

Ooops I posted my comments in the wrong thread (#1319 (comment))... and got a reply (#1319 (comment))...

I sincerely ask anyone to re-consider whether such behaviour and attitude should be encouraged and/or supported.

Again, it's a dilemma. Life's full of them.

Cheers.

[nonwill]

#1319 (comment)

But let's stay civil and avoid...

It should be @FyTpodQUuWvQNTh(marreromarco)s mother's umbilical cord was not cut short when it was born. Just to help you get to know this premature and difficult baby:

[ghost]

@nonwill stop publishing irrelevant screenshots ! You are polluting the GoldenDict Github Repo with useless photos.

@nonwill You are a code stealer and spyware creator who didn't like to be exposed online ! You are loosing “clients” because many users are uninstalling your GD++ malware. Cry alone and stop being a spammer on the Official GoldenDict Repo !

[vedgy]

@nonwill, your screenshots indicate that @marreromarco had been a happy user of your so-called GoldenDict++ until [s]he learned that the "improved" version of GoldenDict contains malicious features and unlawfully denies its users freedom. What is childish about this user enlightenment? Cannot an adult learn something new and change his/her opinion and behavior?

My view still remains that as we discussed before: as an individual developer, I will not host my changes up again without addressing the blatant infringement issues of commercial companies. But if things changed, I will change too.

The GPL is not about who earns what. It does not prohibit selling exact or modified copies of software - as long as the binaries are accompanied with the source code. Free/libre is not an antonym of "commercial", but of "proprietary".

The GPL is about user freedom. Malicious features are rarely implemented in free software. When they are, the users promptly remove them in a fork, so free software users are never forced to suffer malicious features and antifeatures. By implementing malicious link replacement you indicated the willingness to abuse developer power of the (illegally) proprietary fork. Eliminating such abuse of power over the users is among primary goals of the GPL.

I am not sure whether or not Eudic is based on GoldenDict, because a single text editor screenshot with the string "GoldenDict" is hardly a conclusive evidence. Eudic could just refer to alternative software in the user documentation.

From the point of view of the GPL, your position is roughly: "as long as there is an evil company, I am going to be evil too". Assuming Eudic indeed violates the GPL, its behavior is a moral equivalent of @nonwill's behavior. The company can say just the same, e.g.: "We would gladly release Eudic's source code, but first GoldenDict++'s source code should be released. Otherwise, GoldenDict++ will incorporate our improvements and keep denying user freedom." This would be a license violation stalemate.

"GoldenDict++" adds some useful features and claims to fix some bugs. But it also denies user freedom and incorporates malicious features. Therefore, the name "GoldenDict-+" would be more apt. In a way, GoldenDict++ is worse than Eudic, because it appropriates GoldenDict's brand name and by claiming to be "an improved version" entices GoldenDict's users.

[shawkynasr]

I am not sure whether or not Eudic is based on GoldenDict, because a single text editor screenshot with the string "GoldenDict" is hardly a conclusive evidence. Eudic could just refer to alternative software in the user documentation.

That related to GNU for dictd dictionaries, Here is the photo from Dev team of Eudic.

Now everything becomes clear

@Abs62 that time you have to say something, Many people hope Goldendict getting better like calibre, Kovid Goyal doing fantastic efforts, incredible! You can add "Sponsor" button GitHub Sponsors that could encourage more Contributors.

[nonwill]

Here is the photo from Dev team of Eudic. that like you said @vedgy, they didn't steal code of GD.

@shawkynasr : You've been fooled by Eudic for that they just give you a code slice of source header - and it's worthless and meaningless.
Just give you one simple hole only - seems that the Dev team of Eudic and you all need to do more efforts😀:

[shawkynasr]

So, I am asking @Abs62 to investigate it.

Violation of the GPL agreement, the court fined it! First domestic case
违反GPL协议，法院判罚了！国内首例
costs of safeguarding rights totaling 500,000 yuan, and stop the infringement.

[darnn]

With all due respect, all else aside, per Google Translate: "The first instance ruled that the two infringement defendant companies should compensate the plaintiff’s economic losses and reasonable costs of safeguarding rights totaling 500,000 yuan, and stop the infringement."

Since there's no financial loss or costs of protecting rights in this case, it's not exactly equivalent.

[nonwill]

costs of safeguarding rights totaling 500,000 yuan, and stop the infringement.

Since there's no financial loss or costs of protecting rights in this case, it's not exactly equivalent.

GoldenDict++ is worse than Eudic, because it appropriates GoldenDict's brand name and by claiming to be "an improved version" entices GoldenDict's users.

So, I am asking @Abs62 to investigate it.

Eudic may be using GoldenDict's codes in a dignified manner for many years, right? As an individual developer, I don't doubt its validity, but more likely some developer(s) of GoldenDict Dev Team have a partnership with it. Just look at all holes Eudic left in the app(binary) to see how bad the codes were written, but it's more likely that the developers left them on purpose - maybe they have a plan to get rotten money sometime, as some users here do - and I think GoldenDict++OCR has already had an impact on the interests of these fraudsters...

[ghost]

@nonwill was banned on PDAWiki Forum. That website was used by "nonwill" to launch her "GD--" malware.
https://www.pdawiki.com/forum/space-uid-301988.html

Around half a million people visit PDAWiki per month and that Chinese website was the main platform of "nonwill" advertisements. According to PDAWiki statistics, "nonwill" spent 3.519 hours on that forum promoting her "GD--" malware !

Antivirus software Companies should also be informed to blacklist "GD--" 🗡️

---

@nonwill why don't you contribute with >3000 hours of work into the Official GoldenDict repository and stop stealing source code ?

[nonwill]

According to PDAWiki statistics, "nonwill" spent 3.519 hours

想得疯疯癫癫的，那Winter给他开药 😆 😆

As mentioned by the ridiculous story of fraudsters, it's a bit much to follow the vine to get to the melon by 3.519 hours. So the robot still has topportunities to improve.:laughing:

[ghost]

Users are uninstalling the GD++ MALWARE by @nonwill and changing to GoldenDict fork by @xiaoyifang: https://github.com/xiaoyifang/goldendict

https://forum.freemdict.com/t/topic/12349

[loyukfai]

Hopefully someone can help @xiaoyifang to make installable package or zip packages of GoldenDict for Windows as well.

[loyukfai]

@GPLv3-fan If you have valid complaints, there is a "report" function on GitHub.

Cheers.

[vedgy]

@GPLv3-fan If you have valid complaints, there is a "report" function on GitHub.

Just tried reporting @nonwill's copyright violation and misleading advertisement to GitHub (see @nonwill's "release announcement" comments on 2022-06-18 across many recently updated open GoldenDict issues - https://github.com/goldendict/goldendict/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc). Received a rather generic reply. Excerpts:

If you're the copyright holder and want to have content hosted on GitHub modified or removed, you have the option of filing a DMCA takedown notice. Instructions, examples, and policy details are available here:
Copyright - DMCA Takedown Policy
Guide to Submitting a DMCA Takedown Notice
If you're not the copyright holder, your best bet would be to contact the owner of the content and let them decide if they'd like to take action.

I really don't want to attempt any legal action. Not a lawyer.

Finally, disruptive users can be blocked by following the instructions found below:
Blocking a user from your personal account
Blocking a user from your organization

Blocking from my personal account won't save others from malicious behavior. I am not sure even @Abs62 has the necessary rights to block a user from goldendict organization. And he probably wouldn't utilize these rights anyway.

Please let us know if we can help in any other way.

And what can I ask GitHub to do? I kind of hoped they would be concerned about the distribution of illegal software on their platform. But it looks like either they haven't investigated this much or there is insufficient ground for any action.

So I guess our community's best course of action is to post a link to this issue in replies to some of the offending comments - this has been done already - thanks. And then we should vote down abusive @nonwill's comments, vote up the comments that link to this issue.

[regs01]

According to Wikipedia: " Programs are also considered malware if they secretly act against the interests of the computer user. "

I'm not into this story and never heard of that fork, but this definition of malware is very vague. Every single program and application fits into it. 100% of all software.

[nonwill]

" Programs are also considered malware if they secretly act against the interests of the computer user. "

You are right.
But from the source point of the view above, malicious people first, and then malicious Programs made, and most common situation is that those malicious people don't output anything except to wave their vicious tongues.

[xgungnir]

Just have a look at nonwill's project landing page and find something interesting. It seems that nonwill has made some changes that reflect the his personal political views, such as modifying the flag of a country's icon and labeling it differently (see my screenshot below and its source web archive url).

I think while every developer has the right to express their views, we users should be aware of such modifications and ensure we align with our own perspectives or requirements. So I post my finding here just fyi.

Personally I will stop using nonwill's GoldenDict++ and go for another alternative.

[nonwill]

@xgungnir :

I think while every developer has the right to express their views, we users should be aware of such modifications and ensure we align with our own perspectives or requirements. So I post my finding here just fyi.

Personally I will stop using nonwill's GoldenDict++ and go for another alternative.

At least you've made your political position clear.
If you are not a Chinese, I would not continue to comment on your position, but if a lackey, your departure is the best option.