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AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

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Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

#421

Post by whatsmyusername »

dak1 wrote: post #62

I'm extremely disappointed to see how many comments on here focus on the very narrow legal questions and amount to: "Your license didn't say they couldn't." Open source software is more than a license and code. It is a community and the digital public square. And the Tragedy of the Commons is just as applicable to our public square as it is to William Forster Lloyd's common land. Either we as a community hold ourselv…

No it’s not. It’s just a license. I will never bet against the tragedy of the commons because it’s easy money.

Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

#422

Post by jeromenerf »

tunesmith wrote: post #390
branon wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legally no, morally no, ethically yes?

Interesting, how would you define ethically different than morally?

In a nutshell, ethics is a bit more pragmatic than morals. Ethos and moralis, the customs and "of the customs".

Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

#423

Post by sequoia »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #410
sequoia wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is wanting to have it both ways. - I don't want to use restrictive (GPL) license like those business-hating FSF folks–I want people to use my software _freely_ - Hey! A big business used my software in a way that rubs me the wrong way (in this case, without giving prominent enough attribution)! Not nice! What's not nice about it? You use a permissive license but you're going to get upset if people follow th…

> How is it fair to expect other parties to meet your secret expectations? > What did AWS do wrong here? Were they supposed to know this guy's unwritten expectations? I suspect you're either autistic or a lawyer being obstinate. Human society is full of unwritten expectations, we learn these quickly as a child or face social consequences. No where in the law is it written that you must say 'please' and 'thank you' bu…

https://web.archive.org/web/20090717023402/https://zedshaw.c...

The answer you're looking for this guy wrote up 10+ years ago: If you don't like the way people are using your work, release your next work under a different license that more closely matches what you want. Learn from the mistake & don't make it again.

Maybe I'm autistic (the diagnostic criteria are very fuzzy around the edges) but I'm not sure what that has to do with my argument.

Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

#424

Post by bawolff »

jasode wrote: post #42

There are some replies in this thread that misunderstood the content of Tim Nolet's twitter post. (Probably because the short headline has pitchfork raising overtones.) - He's not complaining that Amazon forked his code with Apache license. He admits he also uses other open source with permissive licenses - He just thought it would be nice/courteous/polite/etc if Amazon acknowledge/recognized/credited/mentioned/thank…

I disagree, he posted a rant on twitter complaining about amazons behaviour. Even if he admits that its not technically required, he is still generatig negative press for someone legitamently exercising their rights under the open source license he used.

In my opinion he is violating the spirit of the open source license since he is using extra-legal means to interefere with amazon exercising their rights under the apache license. This is unethical in my opinion

Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

#426

Post by whatsmyusername »

hackerfromthefu wrote: post #129
cmaker10 wrote: post #48

Could everyone take a moment here and reflect on their hostile attitude towards an open source author who just wants to be treated fairly (in a moral sense)? My guess is that none of the people who are lecturing and gloating have ever written anything substantial. Shame on you.

Yeah part of the social contract for open source is people get appreciation, respect, and visibility in exchange for their contributions ..

The license does not require that.

Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

#427

Post by branon »

tunesmith wrote: post #390
branon wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legally no, morally no, ethically yes?

Interesting, how would you define ethically different than morally?

It was my impression that morality regards the beliefs of one person/entity (here, Amazon) while ethics refers to a different/opposing group.

So clearly Amazon has no moral scruples about doing what they did, but to us (or others) it's ethically ambiguous.

Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

#428

Post by serguzest »

serguzest wrote: post #274
code4tee wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read further down the Twitter thread you’ll see others point out that AWS actually DID acknowledge him in the release and thus his original rant isn’t accurate. He acknowledges that later in the thread. Of course the, now inaccurate, headline Tweet remains the thing getting attention.

hi! I want to work for amazon, can you forward my resume to your boss please?

negative feedbackers, please beware this is a sarcastic comment. I think the guy was manipulating the thread.

Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

#429

Post by SquishyPanda23 »

masukomi wrote: post #346

I really wish, that when COs like Amazon decided to productize a thing they either offered the core developer(s) enough $ to work on it full time (if they wanted) or a job to do that with a guarantee that as long as it was a product, and they wanted to work on it, they'd be allowed to continue. Problem with offering job is the likelyhood of getting redirected to some other unrelated work. instead of forking they coul…

> this big co strategy of "mine. I profit now. everyone who built up this useful thing can suck eggs" really sucks and sucks for the humans and sucks for Open Source.

I think the software community is having an "I never thought the leopards would eat my face" moment.

The community pushed for a long time for licenses that donated labor to corporations because the licenses sounded more "free", and that flattered their politics.

When the corporations actually pick up the value everyone left on the table, the community gets outraged.

Re: AWS forked my project and launched it as its own service

#430

Post by Gehinnn »

sequoia wrote: post #352
jasode wrote: post #42

There are some replies in this thread that misunderstood the content of Tim Nolet's twitter post. (Probably because the short headline has pitchfork raising overtones.) - He's not complaining that Amazon forked his code with Apache license. He admits he also uses other open source with permissive licenses - He just thought it would be nice/courteous/polite/etc if Amazon acknowledge/recognized/credited/mentioned/thank…

The issue is wanting to have it both ways. - I don't want to use restrictive (GPL) license like those business-hating FSF folks–I want people to use my software _freely_ - Hey! A big business used my software in a way that rubs me the wrong way (in this case, without giving prominent enough attribution)! Not nice! What's not nice about it? You use a permissive license but you're going to get upset if people follow th…

AWS did wrong by being so wealthy. They could have done better easily.

It is like fair use: They guy that uses google drive to backup youtube in its entirety is not doing anything illegal. He just demonstrates that he cannot deal with freedom.

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