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uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

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Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

#151

Post by skyyler »

echelon wrote: post #115
shwaj wrote: post #94

I know it’s not necessarily the same people, but it feels contradictory for this community to say “copyright infringement isn’t theft” when we’re talking about movies, but use the opposite language when talking about GPL source code.

Rhymes with horseshoe theory. People are willing to let behavior slide when it aligns with their interests, but will call it out when the "other team" does it. - Copyright abuse of games, movies, commercial software vs open source software - Censorship of conservative speech vs censorship of liberal speech - Genocide of one geopolitical entity vs another geopolitical entity - Separation of church/state with mandated…

>- Separation of church/state with mandated removal of religious symbols from students and government places vs freedom of religion with removal of LGBT symbols from students and government places

>It's the same behavior on both sides, just different groups of people doing it.

I'm actually curious to understand how you came to the conclusion that non-standard sexual and gender identities are equivalent to a religion to you.

I don't mean to start an argument here, but do you actually believe that endorsing a specific religion is the same as endorsing gay rights?

Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

#152

Post by josephg »

kristofferR wrote: post #145
tantalor wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we know when Honey started stealing affiliate links? Was it after the acquisition?

Before, this is how ALL coupon sites/extensions have worked for decades. I'm frankly baffled it weren't more common knowledge, despite being common sense, before the MegaLag video. Did people really think that sites like retailmenot.com or wethrift.com make you open tabs to the shop you're searching for coupons for before you can see the coupon code just for fun?? Affiliate code stuffing is the coupon provider busine…

Utter scumbags. The google chrome & Firefox extension stores should ban the lot of ‘em.

Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

#153

Post by Suppafly »

kristofferR wrote: post #145
tantalor wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we know when Honey started stealing affiliate links? Was it after the acquisition?

Before, this is how ALL coupon sites/extensions have worked for decades. I'm frankly baffled it weren't more common knowledge, despite being common sense, before the MegaLag video. Did people really think that sites like retailmenot.com or wethrift.com make you open tabs to the shop you're searching for coupons for before you can see the coupon code just for fun?? Affiliate code stuffing is the coupon provider busine…

Honestly I knew that that coupon websites were adding their affiliate link to links from their websites, but it never occurred to me that the toolbars would be stripping and replacing affiliate links from actual links you were clicking yourself.

I wouldn't mind if they were transparent about what they were doing or gave you the option to substitute your own code specifically. I'm sure there are a lot of situations where I've clicked an affiliate link to check something out and then that affiliate got credit for other things I've purchased hours or days later. I'd really like a toolbar that let me modify or block the affiliate code from those links.

Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

#154

Post by timeon »

shwaj wrote: post #111
traverseda wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can live in the gift economy or the money economy. Taking stuff from the gift economy and selling it is gross.

I agree completely, and yet I would still prefer language to be used consistently.

Things are often inconsistent however there are cases where something appears inconsistent but it is only lack of knowledge of observer that displays it as inconsistent. At least that is what I have learned today in some different matter (I was that observer).

Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

#155

Post by coldpie »

tikhonj wrote: post #136
shwaj wrote: post #94

I know it’s not necessarily the same people, but it feels contradictory for this community to say “copyright infringement isn’t theft” when we’re talking about movies, but use the opposite language when talking about GPL source code.

The GPL does the exact opposite of copyright; the fact that it uses copyright to achieve that is just an implementation detail. If you believe information should be free to share and remix, you would believe that copyright infringement is not theft and that not releasing code is wrong. The fact that the proprietary code is based on GPL code just shows that the ex-Honey folks are hypocrites: they're trying to use copy…

> The GPL does the exact opposite of copyright; the fact that it uses copyright to achieve that is just an implementation detail.

> If you believe information should be free to share and remix, you would believe that copyright infringement is not theft

No, this is absolutely incorrect. GPL requires copyright (or similar mechanism) to function. Without copyright, anyone could take the GPL'd code and release a compiled binary without releasing source. Releasing the source is the "payment" for being granted a license to copy the original code; without releasing the source, you are in violation of the author's copyright. No one who wants to use the GPL to protect their and their users' rights would advocate for eliminating copyright, because the GPL's goals cannot be achieved without copyright.

Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

#156

Post by kristofferR »

Suppafly wrote: post #153
kristofferR wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before, this is how ALL coupon sites/extensions have worked for decades. I'm frankly baffled it weren't more common knowledge, despite being common sense, before the MegaLag video. Did people really think that sites like retailmenot.com or wethrift.com make you open tabs to the shop you're searching for coupons for before you can see the coupon code just for fun?? Affiliate code stuffing is the coupon provider busine…

Honestly I knew that that coupon websites were adding their affiliate link to links from their websites, but it never occurred to me that the toolbars would be stripping and replacing affiliate links from actual links you were clicking yourself. I wouldn't mind if they were transparent about what they were doing or gave you the option to substitute your own code specifically. I'm sure there are a lot of situations wh…

On Firefox you could use a separate container for your coupon site visits, but do the buying in another container.

Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

#157

Post by chowells »

dmazzoni wrote: post #90
max_ wrote: post #9

Why can't people just run businesses decently without deception & scams? I'm sure they can be profitable. This deceptive behaviour actually makes the business loose customers in the long term.

How do you propose a company like Honey should make a profit without deception and scams? Their product is supposedly: install a FREE extension and you get discount codes applied for you at retailers when you check out. It turns out they were able to be profitable by making themselves the affiliate every time you purchase something, but that's scammy because it's stealing from others who actually generated the referr…

I propose Honey should not make money. There is, in fact, no right to make money by doing whatever you want. Honey should lose massive amounts of money and be shut down. Theft is not a business model that needs to be protected.

Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

#158

Post by twostorytower »

12_throw_away wrote: post #130
twostorytower wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is likely astroturf since they posted it twice, verbatim, in the same article [1], and it uses pretty standard PR deflections (e.g., "So are there some problems with the affiliate industry? Probably. But ...") without actually addressing the central claim. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42577711

I posted it twice because there’s multiple comments covering the same thing.

You can look at my post history. I’m just trying to give an industry perspective. I’m not supporting what Honey or any shopping extension does.

Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension

#159

Post by bnjms »

shwaj wrote: post #94

I know it’s not necessarily the same people, but it feels contradictory for this community to say “copyright infringement isn’t theft” when we’re talking about movies, but use the opposite language when talking about GPL source code.

Being fair these are semantically different meanings of “theft”.

1. Movie copyright is compared, by its owners and the law, to physical theft. This type of theft does not remove the physical use or any use from the owners.

2. GPL copyright only requires sharing changed code. Failing to disclose the changes actually does affect the owners in the way claimed.

They’re two different social contracts and we need different words for them. Honestly many social problems are like this.

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