Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks • Hacker News Board

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#51

Post by arp242 » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:09 PM UTC

The trolling was ridiculous. I don't blame them.

It was pretty clear that with "fork" they meant "don't create a WinAmp-ng fork" and not a "fork" in the "send a patch" GitHub sense. It's fine to point out "hey, I think your custom written license may need a bit of work!", but the amount of vitriol and hate over it (including on HN) was just ridiculous.

It was one of those moments I was embarrassed to be posting here.

And yes, they could have done better, sure. But instead of bringing in someone in the community you just chased them away. Well done everyone. Good job. Excellent result. A story to tell the grandchildren.

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#52

Post by burningChrome » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:10 PM UTC

VonGuard wrote: post #29

londons_explore wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but if courts gave out damages of $10 for this sort of offence (taking into account the very low commercial value of the IP stolen), then very few people would even bother pursuing it in court.

Courts do not do that. The people suing would offer up a big old list of damages into the millions and then negotiate down from there to something like 6 figures AND the loser covering the court costs. The American legal system is completely broken, and amounts to two people piling up money, then the one with the bigger stack wins both stacks of money. This is completely untenable for a non-profit to even think about…

>> The people suing would offer up a big old list of damages into the millions and then negotiate down from there

You're assuming an awful lot with this.

- No defendant is going to negotiate a settlement out of court. They would force you to hire an attorney and force this to a trial because of how absurd it is.

Then you would be left with other major issues:

- One that any IP law firm would take a case like this on to begin with.

- The little upside for any firm litigating a case where the software is 30+ years old, effectively abandoned and has little if any resell value.

- Then even if some firm did want to take a swing at it, getting this in front of a judge who would even consider the case would be a huge hurdle as well. We're not even considering having to deal with a jury trial either which would also be even harder to win.

- Even if the defendant refused to negotiate pre-trial, and you somehow managed to finagle yourself into a civil bench or jury trial, trying to convince anybody that the plaintiff has somehow sustained financial damages on 30+ year old software that is no longer being used and has no resale value is almost impossible.

The US courts are not perfect, but these kinds of cases rarely see the inside of a court room and for good reason.

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#53

Post by sangnoir » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:10 PM UTC

sph wrote: post #24

flamt wrote: post #12

Here is a mirror of the repo, as of the last commit before it was deleted: https://git.cbraaten.dev/AtRiskRepos/winamp Also here is a git bundle file which can be cloned from: https://litter.catbox.moe/dwhadv.bundle

[flagged]

> If possible and willing to risk deletion, try to upload it on Github as well;

You could have easily done this yourself, under your GitHub account in the time it took you to compose your reply (with fewer keystrokes at least). GP seems content with their self-hosted mirror.

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#54

Post by bscphil » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:11 PM UTC

fsflover wrote: post #17

Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41662105 Winamp contained modified GPL code, violating the GPL (github.com/winampdesktop) 18 points by mepian 19 days ago | 6 comments

I can't see the original issue, but it's interesting that the title chooses to highlight the fact that the GPL code was modified. Actually, under the GPL, this fact is immaterial. If the Winamp player contained any GPL code at all, modified or not, then it is a derivative work of that GPL code and anyone receiving a copy of Winamp is entitled to demand the full corresponding source be provided under a GPL license.

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#55

Post by abbbi » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:13 PM UTC

arp242 wrote: post #51

The trolling was ridiculous. I don't blame them. It was pretty clear that with "fork" they meant "don't create a WinAmp-ng fork" and not a "fork" in the "send a patch" GitHub sense. It's fine to point out "hey, I think your custom written license may need a bit of work!", but the amount of vitriol and hate over it (including on HN) was just ridiculous. It was one of those moments I was embarrassed to be posting here.…

exactly.

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#56

Post by gacklecackle » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:14 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #53

sph wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> If possible and willing to risk deletion, try to upload it on Github as well; You could have easily done this yourself, under your GitHub account in the time it took you to compose your reply (with fewer keystrokes at least). GP seems content with their self-hosted mirror.

[flagged]

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#57

Post by squarefoot » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:14 PM UTC

And here's another story to add to the book "How to shoot yourself in the foot by not knowing how the Internet and software licenses work", should anyone write that one day.

Also, from one ArsTechnica link posted later in this story, one former dev told that the 4 WA Legacy developers were fired and soon he left too, so I guess they presumably had either no one or very few resources who knew that code and were in the best position to audit it before public release. This is not just shooting oneself in the foot; it rather looks like dancing on a landmine.

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#58

Post by mikeortman » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:17 PM UTC

It's wild to nitpick the licensing like this. I get why its conter-intuitive and in violation of Github's guidelines, but it's winamp, folk. It has no intrinsic value these days to update or fork outside of giving people the opportunity to learn from the tricks they had to do to make stuff work. There are solutions significantly better and open source today. 'Canceling' winamp in 2024 was not on my life's bucket list after the year 2000.

There is hypocrisy here around internet archive, it's totally OK to store copy-write content on the archive, but its not OK when a company does so on their own.

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#59

Post by Am4TIfIsER0ppos » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:19 PM UTC

belthesar wrote: post #14

sureIy wrote: post #10

I don't really understand why people complained. The source is open, if don't want to contribute, don't. Just because something doesn't fit a specific definition it doesn't mean it's not worth of existence.

The source wasn't open though, it was available, and it was provided in a sense that fully showcased that they did not understand what they were doing. Everything from licenses that were fully unenforceable and non-compliant with Github's license agreement to illegally distributing proprietary code to fundamentally misunderstanding how to use git. It's one thing to provide a source available codebase. That's a choice…

> non-compliant with Github's license agreement

Oh no! I did notice all the hallmonitors calling for teacher.

I absolutely support dumping proprietary code on any platform and I'm glad I got a copy the day it was uploaded which lets me verify any fork claiming to be from it.

Re: Winamp deletes entire GitHub source code repo after a rocky few weeks

#60

Post by wccrawford » Wed, Oct 16, 2024, 6:20 PM UTC

abbbi wrote: post #15

Calavar wrote: post #7

We've lost a lot with the deletion of this repo. Not the code - that's already out in the ether - but the absurdist comedy of the issues, pull requests, and commit history of trying to piecemeal delete third party non-FOSS software.

sorry, but this was a real shitshow. I dont understand: wtf makes people think spamming an repo in the way they did is in any way useful?

Most people aren't trying to be "useful". They're trying to be funny or get attention. For something as mainstream popular as this was, you can bet you'll get more jokers than aces.