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I've Just Liberated My Modules

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Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#641

Post by joepie91_ »

callmevlad wrote: post #43

The fact that this is possible with NPM seems really dangerous. The author unpublished (erm, "liberated") over 250 NPM modules, making those global names (e.g. "map", "alert", "iframe", "subscription", etc) available for anyone to register and replace with any code they wish. Since these libs are now baked into various package.json configuration files (some with 10s of thousands of installs per month, "left-pad" with…

As I understand it, even if a package is unpublished, that does not (normally) free up its name.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#643

Post by progx »

octref wrote: post #328

Why don't people just use lodash? https://lodash.com/docs#padStart It's well-tested, well-maintained, performant, with good documentation and has custom-build to leave out functions you don't need.

And when a lodash (trademark holding) company knock the door and sey "hey, you cant use lodash anymore", what happen then? Will npm remove it or replace it?

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#644

Post by joepie91_ »

namelos wrote: post #549
callmevlad wrote: post #43

The fact that this is possible with NPM seems really dangerous. The author unpublished (erm, "liberated") over 250 NPM modules, making those global names (e.g. "map", "alert", "iframe", "subscription", etc) available for anyone to register and replace with any code they wish. Since these libs are now baked into various package.json configuration files (some with 10s of thousands of installs per month, "left-pad" with…

could we just move our javascript package manager to an organisation rather than a commercial company? then please use named scope as default like@cycle/core @reactivex/rxjs.

That's how it used to be, more or less. Then they commercialized "to better be able to support the infrastructure".

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#645

Post by delinka »

michaelmrose wrote: post #387
delinka wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People with experience in software wouldn't likely confuse the two pieces of software. But most people think "computers" and stop there. Most people visiting an app store would see "Windows" for 99 cents, buy it, then complain when it wasn't Microsoft Windows. They wouldn't read descriptions, and they don't know what an operating system is. Confusion. Microsoft is very likely to prevail in the infringement lawsuit.

Those products would not conflict there isn't a giant category called computers and further you can't just take a generic word out of the English language and take possession. Apple is a generic word for example but not in computer technology. This matter has even already been litigated. Microsoft Windows is a valid trademark, Windows is not defensible. Please see lindows aka linspire.

That case was settled and a decision from a court was never reached. That is pretty far from claiming a Windows trademark is indefensible.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#646

Post by mc808 »

visarga wrote: post #428
smsm42 wrote: post #348

Reading some of the comments reminds me old tale about a young man, that every morning on his way to work passed by a beggar and gave him a coin (that was back when coins actually had some value). One morning though the beggar notices the coin is smaller than usual, and he asks: - Why you gave me a different coin today? and the young man says: - I got married and now I'm starting a family, I need more money so I can…

> But let's not lose the perspective - the author does not owe us or npm continued support On the other hand, he wanted his work published in the community registry where they got exposure and were made into dependencies in lots of projects. When the author offered their modules and then suddenly walked away with them, lots of innocent devs who built their projects with his modules got hurt. He did more bad than good…

> Now people will start wondering if a module with millions of installs in the last month is still going to exist tomorrow.

That's a smart thing for people to wonder when there is a very real possibility that it won't. I'm not going to applaud the author's action here, which I consider reckless, but it did bring attention to how fragile this "essential" infrastructure really is.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#647

Post by devishard »

Yet another example of the JavaScript ecosystem being pretty much garbage.

To be clear, I'm not attacking the author here. He released left-pad at version 0.0.3; no responsible developer should be using that in production code.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#648

Post by delinka »

michaelmrose wrote: post #383
delinka wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, in your opinion, if I built a software application that let you design and order plate glass in decorative form to be placed in the walls of your house and named this app "Windows" would Microsoft's inevitable attempts at protecting their trademark be overreaching? The windows I named my app for are physical things and Microsoft's are virtual, but I'm releasing a software product called "Windows." Both kik names…

Funny that you picked that example windows is actually not a valid trademark at all. This has been tested in court.

Can you provide a link to a case? The only one I recall is about Lindows and that case settled out of court.

Re: I've Just Liberated My Modules

#649

Post by superninja »

"This situation made me realize that NPM is someone’s private land where corporate is more powerful than the people, and I do open source because, Power To The People."

This is true of all package distribution systems. There's always a small elite of admins who regard the system as their territory (and usually have no respect for the authors).

People contributing should be well aware of this.

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