Live data from Hacker News

What should I do when someone blatantly copy my open-source project on GitHub?

news.ycombinator.com

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: What should I do when someone blatantly copy my open-source project on GitHub?

#11
post #7
post #6

Your repo is licensed as Apache 2.0. It seems these guys MAY be in violation of that license. My first steps would be to fully understand the license you chose to apply to your original code, and then figure out if that's something you can report to GitHub for infringing.

Hey, thank you for your suggestion. I tried to read the license and if I'm not mistaken, they need to attribute the copyright to the original project, no?

For better or worse, your license is as good as your wherewithal to enforce it. This is a matter for your lawyers.

Re: What should I do when someone blatantly copy my open-source project on GitHub?

#13
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately not. I tried to find some form of attribution to the original project but I couldn't find any.

Then fill the DMCA form.

That is way too hostile for a first contact. It would be much better, at first, to politely ask them to comply with the license. If they ignore you, or refuse, then think about escalating.

Re: What should I do when someone blatantly copy my open-source project on GitHub?

#14
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then fill the DMCA form.

That is way too hostile for a first contact. It would be much better, at first, to politely ask them to comply with the license. If they ignore you, or refuse, then think about escalating.

Maybe. If it's just removal of the other info, then perhaps. If it's removal AND implying it's theirs? No, not too hostile at all, in that case.

Re: What should I do when someone blatantly copy my open-source project on GitHub?

#15
post #12

What is the difference between legitimately taking advantage of open-sourceness and plagiarism? Attribution? If so, try to contact them and ask them to put your name/link to each file derived from yours.

Thank you for the reply. This is my first time having this issue and I'm not quite sure either. I just think that giving credit where credit is due seems more ethical.

I will definitely try to contact them either via the repo issue or their Discord.

Re: What should I do when someone blatantly copy my open-source project on GitHub?

#16
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is way too hostile for a first contact. It would be much better, at first, to politely ask them to comply with the license. If they ignore you, or refuse, then think about escalating.

Maybe. If it's just removal of the other info, then perhaps. If it's removal AND implying it's theirs? No, not too hostile at all, in that case.

Based on the commits, PRs, and issue history, they were all previous issues that exists in OasysDB. They changed the name of the contributors to their own.

For example, this is the PR in OasysDB by one of our contributors compared to theirs: https://github.com/oasysai/oasysdb/pull/43 https://github.com/Sahomey-Technologies/sahomedb/pull/9

Re: What should I do when someone blatantly copy my open-source project on GitHub?

#17
I think the developer doing this is: https://github.com/obaraelijah

And it looks like he's done the exact same with a pen-testing project called Kraken: https://github.com/myOmikron/kraken-project

Probably trying to pad out his Github for freelancing.

Re: What should I do when someone blatantly copy my open-source project on GitHub?

#20

I think the developer doing this is: https://github.com/obaraelijah And it looks like he's done the exact same with a pen-testing project called Kraken: https://github.com/myOmikron/kraken-project Probably trying to pad out his Github for freelancing.

Yeah. I'm sure it's for something like that.
Post reply on HN