Request for complete corresponding source of Plus Messenger 12.x (GPLv2 Section 3)
Plus Messenger (org.telegram.plus, ~50M Google Play installs) is a fork of Telegram for Android (github.com/DrKLO/Telegram), which is licensed GNU GPL v2 or later. This repository carries that GPLv2 LICENSE. Under GPLv2 Section 3, every binary you distribute must ship with its complete corresponding source, or a written offer valid for any third party. That is not optional, and it is not satisfied here.
Request: publish the complete corresponding source for the version you currently distribute (Google Play 12.10.1.0, updated 2026-08-29): every modification over upstream Telegram, plus the build scripts.
1. The published source has not moved since 2017
The newest source in this repo is v4.2.1.1, commit 1d961518 (2017-09-13). Nothing has been committed since except a README edit (b418c867, 2019). No tags. Source requests citing Section 3 have sat open and unanswered since October 2018 (issues #20 and #22), and people keep asking anyway: 2021-07-23 ("up-to-date source ... according to your license?"), 2025-05-07, 2026-04-08.
The "Source code updated to vX" line in every changelog (e.g. plusmsgr/465) means you rebased onto Telegram's upstream source. It does not mean you published yours. The empty commit history here proves that.
2. You ship unpublished code, and you charge for it
Version 12.10.1.0 contains current upstream Telegram GPL code plus your own layer under org.telegram.plus.*: an ad engine (org.telegram.plus.ads.AdsController) and Google Play billing (org.telegram.plus.ads.BillingHelper). None of that org.telegram.plus code exists in any published source. The path returns HTTP 404 in this repository. (Base APK SHA-256 d332a130..., signature-verified as your build.)
You announced ads on 2025-10-02, and you sell removal for EUR 5.99 to 99.99. No source and no written offer ships with the binary anywhere: not on Google Play, not in the app, not on the site, not here.
3. This is policy, not a backlog
Your pinned group rules, English plusmsgrchat/1958625 and Spanish TodoSobrePlusMessenger/56212 (pinned since 2019), say the current source is "available to limited parties like Telegram itself" and that asking about it is off-topic. Your admin enforces it: plusmsgrchat/1798149, "This is not the place to ask for source code." Section 3 has no delay clause, and 3(b) requires the offer be open to any third party, not the parties you choose. People spelled this out in your own group back in 2016 (/7621, /10640).
4. Your stated reason now describes you
The pinned rules say you withhold the source to stop other developers from "adding advertising for their own benefit." That is exactly what you did. Your own group bot still tells users this is "not a commercial project, released for free" (plusmsgrchat/2012183, 2026-06-11), eight months after you started charging for ad removal.
5. The usual answers do not apply
- "We wait for Telegram." Your Section 3 duty is yours and does not depend on Telegram. Their source is already public. What is missing is your
org.telegram.pluscode and your build scripts for the version you ship. - "You are not the copyright holder." Any recipient of a GPL binary is entitled to its corresponding source. I received the binary. That is all the standing Section 3 requires, and it does not depend on who I am.
- "The ads are third-party libraries." The source at issue is your own
org.telegram.plus.adscode and your build scripts, not AdMob or the billing client. - "It is coming later." Section 3 requires the source, or a written offer, at the time you distribute. Not eventually. It has been nine years.
Under GPLv2 Section 4, distributing outside these terms ended your license until you provide the source. Publish the complete corresponding source for the current version and this is closed. The full record (commit history, APK hashes, dated citations) is kept and available.