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Microsoft Smartphone Code Signing and the GPL?
spacemonkey asks: "I am a professional developer, but in my spare time I have been developing games for the Microsoft Smartphone platform. Included in this work is a port of gnuboy a GPL gameboy colour emulator. Where does the GPL stand on the question of codesigning applications where required? Basically gnuboy is available, with full source for smartphone, however there are a large number of users out there who are unable/unwilling to remove the certification requirements from their smartphone devices, so to allow for these users, I need to sign the code. To enter into the code signing program will cost me approximately £500. I am interested in signing the application to make it available to a wider audience, however since I am not running a charity I was wondering whether charging some nominal fee for the code signed version was compatible with the GPL or not. So users would have an option on a signed version for less than £5, or an unsigned version free, which will include the full source code. Am I allowed to charge for GPL software in this way, where the charge is to cover the packaging of the application into a signed form?"
Besides showing MS your middle finger (which I think you should do) or charging everyone money. Why not just ask interested people to donate money until you have enough to pay the fee? You are only interested in not having to pay the fee yourself, I believe this is a fair plan.
If you want to make money of the deal, the Street Performer Protocol may work for you. This will be less risky because you don't have to front the £500 yourself. Another guy has one called The Rational Street Performer Protocol if it suits your tastes better.
Yes, you're buying into an unfree platform. But you're doing it with free software. I think that feels more like shafting the bastards than ignoring the platform completely would.
"You think you can kill off free software by closing your standards? I'll prove you wrong. Free software can thrive even in an unfree environment. Like money, good software drives out bad."
I'd have paid your 500 pounds in full, myself, if it would have run on my wife's Nokia phone. Those games suck.
Look, I know this -2 (Offtopic, Troll) but why in god's name are you developing applications for Windows phones? You should be building apps for J2ME. *All* of the major phone manufacturers (Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens, etc) are already supporting J2ME - I can't count the number of models of phones that support J2ME on both hands, but I can count the number of Windows phones with no hands.
Switching to J2ME also solves your code-signing issue; you don't have to sign your programs at all.
/mike
-- "So, what's the deal with Auntie Gerschwitz et all?"