OmegaT license violations, lies, and deceit

[laseray]

Hello,

It recently came to my attention that OmegaT is once again including
libraries that put it into violation of the GPL (not that it ever
removed others that were putting it in violation the whole time). Last
year a new contributor to OmegaT made a fork of it (yes, others can
make forks of GPL software) and used the JAXB libraries in it. I
brought to this person's attention the fact that even though the Sun
website for JAXB indicated that it was under GPL (as well as their
CDDL) that they had not put a copy of the GPL into the libraries. On
top of that, when you install these libraries a popup window asks you
to agree to the CDDL license specifically. Thus, it is definitely not
under GPL license according to the proper rules of the license. HE
declined to remove the offending libraries at that time.

Since it was a fork and not in OmegaT proper, it was not a problem for
them. Then a number of months later, in early 2008, this fellow while
on the OmegaT project put the offending JAXB libraries into the OmegaT
code (CVS/SVN).
I immediately brought the fact that JAXB is a violation to the OmegaT
project manager's attention. As usual, OmegaT initially dismissed my
claims (they usually do not bother to properly read licenses in my
experience). soon after, though, the JAXB libraries were removed.
This was done without any explanation on their part as to why they
removed them--couldn't have been something I said, could it ;) Thus,
the tacit removal of these libraries was an admission of guilt in them
violating the GPL.

At the same time, they had other offenses, which they have continually
refused to correct or admit. For example, the use of MRJAdapter.
Again, a library that never included a copy of the GPL in its original
distribution (somehow it just happens to have one in the OmegaT
version--can you say tampering!).

Recently, an OmegaT developer, Didier Briel, has somehow mysteriously
reasoned out that JAXB is perfectly fine and is properly under GPL,
which it is not,
and put it back into the code. I sent him a message about this, but
got no reply. Seems OmegaT types are content to repeatedly violate
licenses or not to bother reading them in the first place.

Then there is the documentation, under GPL now, but again not properly
adhering to the GPL rules. It's funny, they had documentation in
version 1.4.x by myself and others, under GFDL. They violated that
license when they tried to steal my work and assume it just came under
the copyright of Marc Prior. After threats of legal action, they
removed my copyrighted material and created new documentation, still
under GFDL, but almost entirely written by J.C. Helary. It seems that
it was something of a failure because it has subsequently been
replaced again by documentation written by someone else (now under
GPL). Having looked at the Helary version (in English) it was a very
poor piece of writing, no wonder it was replaced.

Now there is one of the real problems for OmegaT. This J.C. Helary,
who has continually tried to make trouble for me almost from the
instant I was on the OmegaT project. He did not like some of the
things I was planning to do with the documentation and made a big huff
about it. After a few weeks he quit the OmegaT project, because of my
involvement, only to return weeks later. Then we had to work together.
I tried, but that guy thinks he knows software development when he can
hardly write a line of code. Thus, he made all kinds of accusations at
any opportunity and eventually managed to manipulate the other OmegaT
project members against me, especially Marc Prior who has some kind of
weird misplaced loyalty to Helary which he has not been able to see is
the root of a number of OmegaT's problems.

After my stint with OmegaT, I decided to create OmegaT+. Doing so is
perfectly legal and in accord with all the licenses. Then when I
released the first OmegaT+ version (then omegat 1.4.5), Helary
outright accused me on public forums of theft, a clear case of slander
on his part. Much arguments ensued with the pro-OmegaT types trying to
use any argument, no matter how weak, to get rid of OmegaT+.
Fortunately for OmegaT+, none of the OmegaT arguments carried any
weight, since OmegaT+ has been doing the right things.

Recently, Helary sent me a threatening email saying he was going to
contact certain people that could deal with me (or something to that
effect) because of certain on going OmegaT+/OmegaT disputes. I have
been waiting since 2005 for something to happen as a result of his
threats, nothing ever seems to. This is rather funny because Helary is
not on the OmegaT project anymore.
Sometime last year he either left, in a fit of emotion (again) or was
kicked off after nastily insulting another one of his fellow OmegaT
project members. He also disappeared from the OmegaT Yahoo group as
owner/member, but has since returned as a member.
It really makes you wonder about the sanity of some people when they
think it is there business to try to bring you to some "justice" when
they are not even involved in the concerns. This person does not
really think things through. If it were not for his bad behavior, and
that fact that I am not one inclined to just give up in the face of
adversity, OmegaT+ would probably not exist. So, way to go Helary, you
have succeeded in not stopping OmegaT+ for the past three years and
counting. Good work, very effective use of your time.

Another deceit that OmegaT tries to propagate is that it has a
trademark on the term OmegaT. Yes and no. It has a trademark in
Germany on the term OmegaT. It does not have an international
trademark at all. I have attempted to make this point clear to the
OmegaT project, but they do not want to admit this is the case, even
when they are the ones that sent me the information that shows it is a
trademark in Germany only! Thus, they can only enforce the term as
theirs in Germany and I have not received one contact from the person
who registered the trademark in this regard. So use of the term OmegaT
+ is perfectly legal
and so is the use of OmegaT in most places without any threat of legal
action at all.

There are a number of other points that could be focused on, but that
is it for now. I just hope this clues some of you people into how the
OmegaT project continues to conduct itself. Not as a true FOSS
project, but as a sort of proprietary open source project that is only
out for itself, has little regard for following the rules of the
licenses involved, and whose members have poor attitudes when it comes
to respecting the freedom of others.

Maybe OmegaT only being out for itself would not be so bad if only the
underlying software reflected a high-level of quality. OmegaT works,
as does OmegaT+ using a lot of its code as a base, but there are lots
of bugs (that they refuse to acknowledge) and some parts that are
really badly designed. Thus far, OmegaT has not shown that it can
attract developers with good experience and understanding of proper
software engineering practices. Add to that a bunch of members who
cannot give developers at least a little respect, as they themselves
expect as translators, and it does not make for software that has a
guaranteed future.