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Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product

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Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product

#631

Post by mlindner »

swsieber wrote: post #613
mlindner wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or at the very least users should be able to turn off forking ability in the repo settings. This is absurd. You don't have to use the "fork" button to copy a repository. It's as simple as cloning it and pushing it. Such a restriction servers no purpose at all.

There _is_ a difference between forking and cloning. Forking is always allowed by the github license: > other GitHub users have the right to view and fork your repository _within the GitHub site_ ^^ That's from the github website. Note that they only have permission to fork from within the website. So such a restriction serves as a legal barrier - it leaves no legal way to copy the code.

The github license is irrelevant here because they don't own the code. So there's no point in even mentioning that.

Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product

#632

Post by ci5er »

mikekchar wrote: post #510
Gpetrium wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The reality is that if an idea is really good, the people who came up with it know it better than anyone and that gives them a tremendous advantage in terms of knowing what is important and what isn't. I have to disagree with you emphasizing this point. If someone/entity manages to get your idea or code, they may be able to sell the solution at a fraction of the cost since their R&D was lower than yours. When the en…

What I find a bit crazy is why don't large corporations do this more often? I literally told my manager when I worked at Corel that we should do this: Find a promising looking startup, clone their offering and blow them out of the water by virtue of the fact that we have 500 sales and marketing people with 20 years of experience (not to mention by being second to the market we can learn how to avoid all the legacy pr…

Some SLC companies did pull this off well. I'm working with some Russians now that have teams that replicate US services for Russia, China, India and Brazil, simply with the idea of flipping them post-launch and pre-growth. They are getting rich, so it appears to be working.

Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product

#633

Post by ci5er »

stcredzero wrote: post #616
ssnistfajen wrote: post #507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But when "the Chinese" do the same thing, the reactions always seem to include something about "cheating", "stealing", and "copying" being "ingrained to their 'culture'", complete with some irrelevant anecdotes about some bad experience with Chinese tourists/coworkers/schoolmates or some geopolitical event being shared in the thread as if people are submitting their victim impact statements. This phenomenon appears t…

This phenomenon appears to be unique to situations where the accused party is Chinese. No other nationality/ethnicity seem to suffer the same treatment on HN and elsewhere on the Internet. Actually, it gets applied to all Asians. I know this firsthand as an Asian. It used to be applied to the Japanese with just as much fervor, especially in the 80's. (I lived through this.) I should think it was applied to the Americ…

As a USian, when I lived in Japan (working in semiconductor) from the mid-80s to the mid 90s, people always seemed to make this copying claim.

My response was- 1) Copying an ISA is not copying architecture 2) JP was innovating in manufacturing, not ISAs, which is why they got 95% yield, not 65. 3) Yes - they weren't great systems software guys, and 4) Have you seen Nintendo's games? Clearly they can create and innovate and program.

The trope irritated me, but it seems to be a psychological defense move whenever an emerging contender challenges an incumbent (got to get the base features first == copying)

Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product

#634

Post by kraigie »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #44

That is pretty egregious, and its also par for the course. And that is why startup companies go through all the hoops of being "stealth" and having NDAs and what not. There was a German VC firm that was, as I recall, very upfront about this. Clone a successful US company before it got to the European market. On the one hand it is great to have validation of the idea, on the other its a pain to have someone with more…

>There was a German VC firm that was, as I recall, very upfront about this. Clone a successful US company before it got to the European market.

Rocket internet, clone then sell to the U.S. company when they expand.

That's not the same as copying their manuals,code or other copyright though.

It's more akin to lyft to uber.

Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product

#635

Post by kraigie »

jmb12686 wrote: post #530
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has to be a regional thing, similar to how in some areas of the American south, "Coke" is a generic term for all sodas. But at least in my area (Portland, OR), what you're saying is definitely not true. I've never heard someone use Apple trademarks as generic terms. The generic term people use for a touchscreen smartphone is...a smartphone. Likewise, a generic term for a tablet is "tablet". I've never heard some…

Where I grew up (borderline Midwest, generally associated with the South), it is common to ask “What kind of Coke would you like?” And an acceptable answer to said question could be “Mountain Dew”, “Dr Pepper”, or any competing soda brand. After I moved away from my hometown (though still in the general midwestern region) I found it fascinating how hyper local the nomenclature for soda can be (or rather “pop” or “cok…

>rather “pop” or “coke” depending on where you live

I think "pop" is a hold over from the older English fizzy pop

Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product

#636

Post by kraigie »

int_19h wrote: post #508
kristianc wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to be much more of a US thing. As a European I'd use the category name for most of those. Some of the category names don't even match up - adhesive tape is definitely not what comes to mind for Durex for me.

The specific brands are usually country- or region-specific. It's just that you often don't notice the ones that have been genericized in your culture. Consider: thermos, escalator, linoleum, trampoline, zipper, scotch (as in tape), jeep, xerox, jacuzzi, dictaphone...

>The specific brands are usually country- or region-specific. It's just that you often don't notice the ones that have been genericized in your culture

I think branding to generic really depends on linguistics of target market, brand writers and brand saturation in target market.

A brand name that is hard to pronounce is less likely to be used and how often do you think about the Slovakian pronunciation of your brand?

The US being a large linguistically similar market would be more susceptible to this.

Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product

#637

Post by kraigie »

janoc wrote: post #327
jerf wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't particularly agree with you; I've often thought that amounts to trying to win the debate by nuking the entire playing field. Even if you win, have you? But I can spot you that anyhow, because there's a perfectly reasonable fallback position: This is illegal . It's a copyright infringement at the very least, and possibly other things as well. And being "illegal", the "what are you gonna do about it" actually h…

Copying a design is not illegal . Unless the design is patented (which it doesn't seem to be or the OP would likely have said so in the article), everyone is free to copy any design they want. That you wish something was true doesn't make it so, unfortunately. What is not OK is copying the documentation verbatim, that is copyrighted. However, that is, frankly, the least of the problems (and easiest to rectify) when s…

>everyone is free to copy any design they want

Copying text or pictures would be copyright infringement.

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