Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 386 posts

Re: LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

#121

Post by elemeno »

meerita wrote: post #101
ajross wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. This isn't directed at you personally, more at the community mindpool: And did Flat UI derive artwork from LayerVault? Is there a connection between the developers? Did they work with the same artist? Certainly some of the icons on the two sites look similar, though I don't see any obvious duplication. A critically important step in any hot blooded DMCA freakout is verifying whether or not infringement took p…

They're just claming to be the owners of the style, colors of his work. Meaning you cannot do something with Avenir and Helvetica font, combined with non-glassy graphycs. Something totally absurd, like saying I cannot make a framework inspired on X design movement. Check what the framework developer said: https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/735e17614cca63102b8414... "he said that he: "I am the exclusive rights hold…

They're not claiming to own the style or colours, they're claiming that some of illustrations used in FlatUI are illustrations that LayerVault owns the copyright to.

Re: LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

#122

Post by Pyramids »

jgj wrote: post #103
mrmaddog wrote: post #87

And here's a reply from Allan: https://news.layervault.com/stories/1992-layervault-whats-up... Looks like the pitchforks are out over on HN. It was pretty straightforward. Our reaction was "Cool, a flat UI theme" to "Wait, this looks familiar" to "Wait, are those our illustrations?". I contacted the designmodo people over email, because that's the right way to handle this. The owner was being stubborn at first and re…

A really good way to coerce the pitchforks back into their sheds is to provide proof, especially when your DMCA is vague and posted on a ridiculously public platform. Allan has done neither, and still hasn't done so in his tweets or this post over on his bubbly walled garden. A few simple side-by-side screenshots would have sufficed and put the court of public opinion squarely on his side. He may be completely in the…

Not to mention, he even says himself that it was " ... the similarities are a bit more than striking. That's not a huge issue until you release everything together - the icons, the colors, the UI elements, whatever."

DMCA notices are to enforce against copyright infringement only, not as a tool for organizations to abuse in order to remove content which they think is "too similar", if this was the case, businesses would simply send their competition DMCA notices for being "too similar."

He also stated that because DesignModo "removed some icons" which LayerVault thought were the most blatantly infringing somehow implies guilt, as opposed to just someone trying to handle a dispute in a friendly manner.

I'm not a designer, and I haven't heard of LayerVault until now, however unless some very damning evidence is presented, I feel like every statement he's making is essentially digging a deeper grave.

EDIT: Having looked at the examples of the claimed infringement which are now surfacing, this is even further evidence that this is misuse of the DMCA. At most, this would be a civil / trademark dispute.

Re: LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

#123

Post by justjimmy »

Does anyone have a active subscription to Layervault?

Here's the Flat UI designs: http://designmodo.github.com/Flat-UI/

LV is saying that illustrations/artwork was the reason for the notice so if anyone have artwork on the dashboard they can compare that'd be great (cause I can't find any copied artwork from their main site).

Layervault https://layervault.com/

The issue is artwork/illustration.

Re: LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

#125

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #115
justjimmy wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the point… 'He kinda copied it, so we slapped him with DMCA. We kinda copied a free icon, but it's okay.'

Did he "kinda" copy it, or is it a copy? The two icons we're comparing here are not copies . They are markedly dissimilar.

[deleted]

Re: LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

#126

Post by beseku »

tptacek wrote: post #118
beseku wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are hitting the nail on the head - with styles/aesthetic arguments like this, when is it a copy? Adding a leaf of paper into the icon? Colouring it in? Adding a line of faux text below the faux image? Which came first? Which was the origin? My only point was that when you are getting hammered by people and the evidence you provide is that, it looks poorly thought out.

What evidence? What am I missing? Does someone have a link to the Flat UI icon he's referring to? The impression I got from his message is, Flat UI included a verbatim copy of the DN icon .

"... they even managed to kinda lift the old DN icon ..."

I think you misunderstand. I'm not arguing as to whether the Flat UI guys copied them or not, but like the larger argument, the icon he is putting forward as copied work is itself conceptually very similar to other existing icon work(s). As a designer I would be more than a little miffed if that design appeared if I had created the Noun Project's version and not openly licensed it.

If that is the case, it somewhat undermines the claim that the assets are fully owned by them or even that ownership can be so quickly claimed.

Re: LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

#127

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #118
beseku wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are hitting the nail on the head - with styles/aesthetic arguments like this, when is it a copy? Adding a leaf of paper into the icon? Colouring it in? Adding a line of faux text below the faux image? Which came first? Which was the origin? My only point was that when you are getting hammered by people and the evidence you provide is that, it looks poorly thought out.

What evidence? What am I missing? Does someone have a link to the Flat UI icon he's referring to? The impression I got from his message is, Flat UI included a verbatim copy of the DN icon .

[deleted]

Re: LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

#128

Post by [deleted] »

beseku wrote: post #102
tptacek wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Not the same.

Now I don't know what icon is in the Flat UI pack, but to cite the DMCA's icon as being 'kinda lifted' from theirs[1] when it is so similar to a number of CC-licenced icons on The Noun Project seems like a poor argument in my eyes. [1] http://imgur.com/3zoKuvH

[deleted]

Re: LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

#129

Post by Daiz »

What I personally don't understand is that if DesignModo did actually copy assets from LayerVault, why doesn't LV name said assets and possibly include screenshots or whatever in the DMCA claim? Or make a post about it. Or really, anything that would include the specific information so that people wouldn't be left guessing. As evident by the reactions, not being specific here only serves to make LV's claims seem unsubstantial. I'm personally rather doubtful about their validity for the same reason as well.

Also, I think it's pretty ridiculous that a DMCA takedown can even be "valid" without specifying what exactly was infringed - "I am the exclusive rights holder for the artwork contained within Flat UI, Free Web User Interface Kit" isn't exactly saying much.

Re: LayerVault Sends DMCA Takedown Letter re Flat-UI

#130

Post by aviraldg »

mintplant wrote: post #116
aviraldg wrote: post #60

Why don't we, as a community, collectively agree to boycott copyright trolls? (and teach them a lesson in the process) esp. when the target audience consists of developers/designers EDIT: I tried to cross-post this on Designer News, but it turns out they're invite-only. Can someone do me the honour?

Why don't we, as a community, put away the pitchforks until hearing from both sides? Looking at the top comment in the thread ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5332398 ), it seems that DesignModo lifted some of their illustrations straight from the LayerVault site.

He only mentions that it looks similar - which isn't enough to file a DMCA takedown. When does it become problematic? When there's an identical icon in both sets, which I haven't been able to find so far.
Post reply on HN