Snaps with "Other Open Source" license (not SPDX compliant) are listed as Propietary.

[Terrance]

I am using Chromium as an example right now. The license for applications like Chromium are listed incorrectly in the GNOME Software store. On https://snapcraft.io/chromium Chromium is listed as "Other Open Source", but in the GNOME Software store it is listed as "Proprietary".

On a side note, is there a way to filter the Snap Apps with the plug-in as well in the GNOME Software center?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: gnome-software-plugin-snap 3.28.1-0ubuntu4.18.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-23.25-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Mon Jun 25 17:15:45 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-05-21 (35 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
InstalledPlugins:
 gnome-software-plugin-flatpak N/A
 gnome-software-plugin-limba N/A
 gnome-software-plugin-snap 3.28.1-0ubuntu4.18.04.1
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-software
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[tio (tio-trom)]

Affects me as well.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

snapd is returning the following information:

    {
      "id": "XKEcBqPM06H1Z7zGOdG5fbICuf8NWK5R",
      "title": "Chromium",
      "summary": "Chromium web browser, open-source version of Chrome",
      ...
      "license": "Other Open Source",
      ...
    }

i.e. the license is set to "Other Open Source". This field is supposed to be a SPDX [1] formatted string, and this value is not valid (GNOME Software defaults to proprietary if it can't decode the field). I'm assuming this is an old value that the store used to set?

The solution is probably:
- Ask the snap authors to update their metadata to a valid field.
- Potentially check this particular value in GNOME Software and handle it (this is not going to be upstreamable though).

[1] https://spdx.org/

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

I'll ask the store people to do a search for snaps with this license, but also comment here if you know of other snaps that have the same issue.

[tio (tio-trom)]

Non-snaps are often labeled incorrectly in the Software Store. MIT or GPL3 licenses are labeled as "proprietary" in the Software Center. To test install Ulauncher (GPL3) or Stacer (MIT), to name 2 random ones. They will be labeled as "proprietary". Also, why we cannot filter proprietary snaps out of the Software Store?

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

@tio - can you file a new bug about Debs that show with the wrong license? That sounds like an issue with the AppStream data that is generated for these packages.

[tio (tio-trom)]

@Robert I will although I am not familiar with bug reporting

[Terrance (kato223)]

@tio-trom Just pick any of those Debs mentioned and run `ubuntu-bug <application>` in a terminal window. It will then launch the browser and create the bug for you. Add the important information and it will add the rest.

[tio (tio-trom)]

I doesn't work because those are not officially supported ubuntu debs. I am going to send you a message on launchpad so that we don't crowd this comment section with unrelated comments, and maybe you can help a bit :) - thanks!

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I updated the chromium license to BSD-3-Clause (see https://cs.chromium.org/chromium/src/LICENSE).
The snapcraft dashboard allows selecting multiple licenses, but it says "Multiple licenses can be selected to indicate alternative choices", so I don't think that's what we want (chromium code is governed by multiple licenses, but it's not an either/or choice).

I verified that, following the change, the chromium snap is listed as free software in gnome-software.

[tio (tio-trom)]

I confirm that now Chromium snap is listed as "free" in the Software Center. However Chroimum "source: local" is still proprietary - https://i.imgur.com/zM5xDSr.png

Also, Chromium was one example of such a bug. I see many MIT or GPL3 licencesed software labeled as proprietary in the Software Center.To test install Ulauncher (GPL3) or Stacer (MIT), to name 2 random ones.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

On a related note, the store supposedly allows specifying a custom SPDX expression, so I tried the following for chromium, but it failed with a "Error: Invalid syntax" message:

(BSD-3-Clause AND MIT AND LGPL-2.0-only AND LGPL-2.1-only AND MS-PL AND (MPL-1.1 OR GPL-2.0+ OR LGPL-2.1+) AND Apache-2.0)

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

The store does not currently support the -only forms, which are part of SPDX 3.0 - this caused the error.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

@tio-trom - the source:local version is not a Snap, so is better tracked in another bug.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

Unassigning myself as the cause is the legacy license value coming from the store. The best solution is to update any snaps that have this to a valid SPDX expression. Newly uploaded snaps should not have this issue.

[Ian Johnson (anonymouse67)]

This affects a new snap we uploaded with license metadata to the store around December 2018. We uploaded the snap and used the snap store description editor to choose "Other Open Source" software and it shows up as "Proprietary" in gnome-software.