NonFreeNet short wording is misleading
The webpage for a NonFreeNet
app says This app promotes non-free network services
. This needs to be completed with the or depends entirely
part. The full definition is promote or depend entirely on a Non-Free network service
.
The incomplete wording promoting non-free
content has obvious negative implications for free software enthusiast developers and users and it is dangerous when the reason is not specifically promotion.
For example
- An app can
depend entirely
on non-free servers, without promotion. An editor app for Open Data might be forced to depend on non-free servers offering government data or freely licensed imagery by private companies. - Apps sometimes do get the label by mistake, when networks are connected to, but not depended on. Ability to fix the metadata does not fix this very issue. To make it worse, very often there is no direct communication between F-droid and upstream.
The incomplete wording naturally triggers strong emotions and moves away legitimate users from the app, and app developers from F-droid. This has already happened. In particular, an upstream maintainer should not be required to know the exact meaning of the F-droid-specific metadata.