Name and API terms
Miluven is free software under the GPLv3 and always will be. You may read it, change it, build it and pass it on. Two things do not come with that licence: the name and the servers. This page says exactly where the line is, so a fork knows what it may do without asking.
The code is yours to fork
The app is a fork of Conversations and stays licensed under the GPLv3, with the changes Miluven made included. Nothing on this page adds a condition to that licence, and nothing on this page may be read as one. Forking, building, selling and redistributing the app are all allowed, as the licence says.
The source code of the app as released on Google Play: miluven-f97cace1e5-source.zip.
The name and the look are not licensed
The name Miluven, the logo, the app icon, the wordmark and the visual identity of this website are not part of the free software licence. The GPLv3 says so itself in section 7(e): a project may decline to grant rights under trademark law. So:
- A build that is not published by us does not carry the name Miluven, the logo or the icon, and does not present itself as Miluven.
- That includes a fork, a patched build, a rebuild of an unchanged source tree, and any app that only borrows the look.
- Pick your own name and your own icon. Saying that your app is based on Miluven, or on Conversations, is fine and welcome.
The servers are for the Miluven app
The poll service and the task-list service at miluven.app are run for the app we publish. They are not a public API and not a free backend for other software.
- The endpoints under
miluven.app/api/are for the official Miluven app. Other apps, forks and scripts do not use them. - The pages at
miluven.app/p/…andmiluven.app/t/…are for people opening a link they were sent. Reading a poll or a list you were given a link to is exactly what they are for. - A fork points its build at its own backend. The whole service is in the same repository as the app, so running your own costs one deploy. In the app the address lives in one place,
POLL_BASE_URL. - We may rate limit, block or change the endpoints at any time, and the contract may change together with the app.
This is a condition for using our servers, not a condition on the software. Your copy of the code keeps every freedom the GPLv3 gives it.
Why it is worth saying
People trust a chat app by its name. If any build could call itself Miluven, nobody could tell what they had installed, and a promise on the privacy page would mean nothing. Keeping the name ours and the servers ours is what makes those promises checkable, while the code stays free for everyone.
Questions, or want to use the name for something? Ask first: the contact address is on the privacy page.