Earlier quoted context omitted.
> solutions to company assessments Sorry, are you asserting that you hold copyright over solutions that other people write?
Yeah this stood out to me too. If I publish code that I wrote for no remuneration, how does HackerRank claim to own the copyright to that code?
HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
91–100 of 348 posts
Re: HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
#92> Allegedly Infringing Material Location Links:
“Allegedly”? Does this mean even the lawyers are not sure whether the material is infringing upon their client’s content or not?
Re: HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
#93I apologize in advance for the profanity. This really pissed me off. FUCK you HackerRank, for even entertaining the notion of litigating open source projects at scale for no good reason. FUCK you for taking down the the documentation for a harmless open source symbolic mathematics engine without any justification that I can see. What content of your shitty ranking company could SymPy possibly have infringed on? Also…
Fuck the DMCA, not GitHub! AFAIK, they're legally required to take down material as soon as they receive a DMCA notice or else lose their safe harbor status. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notice_and_take_down
Re: HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
#94Unpopular opinion: FOSS projects shouldn't bother hosting under US jurisdiction. There's absolutely no upside for a nonprofit, and our supercharged lawfare culture causes endless headaches for everyone -- even the most innocent software in the whole world, like a symbolic algebra library. It's so depressing to see well-meaning philanthropy apathetically trampled by thugs in suits.
Re: HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
#95Hello, I'm Vivek, founder/CEO of HackerRank. Our intention with this initiative is to takedown plagiarized code snippets or solutions to company assessments. This was definitely an unintended consequence. We are looking into it ASAP and also going to do an RCA to ensure this doesn't happen again. Sorry, everyone! EDIT: update here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31092085
Thanks for showing up here and replying. I can understand the net being cast too wide for a real problem you are trying to solve. It does have real consequences for already under-resourced communities, though. I appreciate the "fix-it-twice" attitude implied by the RCA promise (Root Cause Analysis for those who also had to look it up). Also, consider recognition and restitution for the unnecessary work you created fo…
Re: HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
#96> We are taking a stand for developers and have reinstated the youtube-dl repo. Section 1201 of the DMCA is broken and needs to be fixed. Developers should have the freedom to tinker. That's how you get great tools like youtube-dl.
Now they are deleting obviously-compliant docs from nonsensical requests. I guess the "stand" went away with Friedman...
Re: HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
#97Unpopular opinion: FOSS projects shouldn't bother hosting under US jurisdiction. There's absolutely no upside for a nonprofit, and our supercharged lawfare culture causes endless headaches for everyone -- even the most innocent software in the whole world, like a symbolic algebra library. It's so depressing to see well-meaning philanthropy apathetically trampled by thugs in suits.
For example, the EU now has a DMCA-like copyright takedown process.
Re: HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
#98Hello, I'm Vivek, founder/CEO of HackerRank. Our intention with this initiative is to takedown plagiarized code snippets or solutions to company assessments. This was definitely an unintended consequence. We are looking into it ASAP and also going to do an RCA to ensure this doesn't happen again. Sorry, everyone! EDIT: update here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31092085
No you aren't. You are only sorry this made it to the front page of HN. Revoke the contract and stop with DMCA takedowns. Unless your company has invented brand new ways of solving common algorithms everything you are doing is most likely derivative work anyway.
Also they take pictures and videos of candidates while taking interviews. Without that permission they don’t allow the test.
They’re not part of the problem - they’re the problem.
Re: HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
#99Hello, I'm Vivek, founder/CEO of HackerRank. Our intention with this initiative is to takedown plagiarized code snippets or solutions to company assessments. This was definitely an unintended consequence. We are looking into it ASAP and also going to do an RCA to ensure this doesn't happen again. Sorry, everyone! EDIT: update here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31092085
> plagiarized code snippets I'm looking at the page that was taken down[1] and it seems to be largely full of pretty basic code snippets demonstrating how to use the Solvers module. Your DMCA request[2] includes the statements that say, in part, that Fair Use has been considered, that you own the copyright, and that the information in that statement is true and accurate. Could you elaborate what on that page you cons…
Re: HackerRank (YC S11) DMCA'ed the SymPy Docs [fixed]
#100Hello, I'm Vivek, founder/CEO of HackerRank. Our intention with this initiative is to takedown plagiarized code snippets or solutions to company assessments. This was definitely an unintended consequence. We are looking into it ASAP and also going to do an RCA to ensure this doesn't happen again. Sorry, everyone! EDIT: update here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31092085
> solutions to company assessments Sorry, are you asserting that you hold copyright over solutions that other people write?
edit: Here's an example,
- "In so doing, the magistrate judge agreed with plaintiffs’ assertion that the solution manuals sold by defendant qualified as “derivative works” under the Copyright Act. As in Pavlica v. Behr and Addison-Wesley Publ’g Co. v. Brown, defendant’s manuals complemented plaintiffs’ 187 copyrighted textbooks, had no “independent economic value” and were “meaningless’ without the textbooks because they merely provided answers to questions posed in the textbooks."
https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/almID/1202435027834/ (2009)
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4345754/pearson-educati... (the ruling is available here, gratis)