Why Convertit is not open source anymore

Convertit used to be open source. It is not anymore, and here is why.

Soon after we published the code, copies started appearing on Google Play under our exact name, “Convertit”, with our logo and a slightly changed background color. It was our app with ads added, pretending to be the real thing. People who downloaded those copies thought they were supporting us.

One example is still live today: an app called “Convertit: Audio in Seconds”, published by Akarshit Bathla under the package name com.akarshit.convertit. It uses our name and a near copy of our icon, and it contains ads. That is not us. We tried reaching out to the publisher directly and got no response.

We filed takedown requests. Google refused to act, so the fakes stayed up.

The code was published under GPLv3. That license allows anyone to reuse and even sell the code, but with conditions the clones ignored: publish your modified source under the same license, and keep the original copyright notices intact. They did neither. They never published their modified source, and our name stayed on it.

Open source only works when the ecosystem respects it. Here it was used to mislead our own users, so we closed the source to protect them. Treat every copy of Convertit outside this site and Google Play as untrusted.

The plan has not changed: once Convertit passes 100,000 installs on Google Play, we will publish the full source again. When that day comes, we will announce it here on the blog.

Until then, get Convertit from Google Play or directly from us, and read more about the app.