151–160 of 201 posts
EDIT
Change your terms to require any usage off planet specifically prohibited by the free trial license
If they're using it in prod then there are plenty of regulations that should force them to establish a real support relationship.
Sometimes this type of stuff happens for a prototype that an org is trying to get funded, but not for 10 years. I'd collect all of the org email addresses they used for the initial d/ls and contact them first- maybe one of the ones from ten years ago has gotten promoted to a point where they can establish a paid relationship or approve use of the open source version.
> We’re not going to waste days chasing them. But at some point, this goes beyond saving a few bucks: it becomes performance art. Oh for the love of tech, do chase them. This absolutely has to be in void of the terms of your trial take them to court. If not, then at the very least name and shame the company, so some dumb manager orchestrating this silly theft will get fired and someone more mature can be rotated in.
You realize that you just gave hacker news gave enough details to commit some satellite controlling backdoor into their system... It's not like some of us aren't going to be like: "Yeah, let's get 'em!" Not me. I'm the ethical type, but some people might think: Step 1: Modify OSS repository to gain control of satellites Step 2: ... Step 3: Profit!
Knowing the details of an open source tool a company uses does not magically give you a backdoor.
By that logic, merely knowing coinbase uses the open source go language for some things would let you steal all their crypto, and I assure you if it was that simple their coffers would be empty.
btw I use linux and firefox and have an unencrypted bitcoin wallet.dat on my computer, feel free to prove me wrong.
> We’re not going to waste days chasing them. But at some point, this goes beyond saving a few bucks: it becomes performance art. Oh for the love of tech, do chase them. This absolutely has to be in void of the terms of your trial take them to court. If not, then at the very least name and shame the company, so some dumb manager orchestrating this silly theft will get fired and someone more mature can be rotated in.
I’m actually considering reaching out directly to the CEO and telling the full story. But honestly? There’s a good chance he’s fully aware — and totally fine with it. That’s part of what makes it so disappointing. We’re not rushing into legal action — it’s not worth the energy for now — but publicly calling out the behavior felt necessary. It also sends a message to others in the ecosystem about the kind of nonsense…
Wth. Why go public instead of just .. emailing them, and asking for payment?
Placed in a marketing context, this human attention could be converted to revenue from other customers. Fund a creative writing competition on VeryBigCo Procurement Anti-Patterns and Shadow IT. Prizes could be paid licenses. If you get enough entries, ask a business school to do a case study on the same subject, then organize a multi-vendor survey on the topic. Also, memes.
You may also need to update the ToS on the trial. At some point, a motivated salesperson could convert the account with a multi-year license that covers both past and future usage.
Tell them that their free trial is over and their company will no longer receive free trial keys. You can do that. It doesn't require a lawyer and it doesn't require threats. Just "We're glad you like our product! Unfortunately we can no longer support you with free trials." Be polite. If they secretly keep getting free trials by pretending to be unaffiliated, then escalate to 1) blocking the fake ones when you disco…
If it was me, I'd have- at the least - a little routine in the trial-signup logic on the backend which would check the company name and known aliases, and return "not eligible for free, but sales would love to talk! Have a nice day!" message.
I have a theory this happens because for individual contributors, the effort to buy SaaS software in the era of "vendor risk assessment" is a nightmare. So you end up with grassroots avoidance of that process, at all costs, inside the company.
> We’re not going to waste days chasing them. But at some point, this goes beyond saving a few bucks: it becomes performance art. Oh for the love of tech, do chase them. This absolutely has to be in void of the terms of your trial take them to court. If not, then at the very least name and shame the company, so some dumb manager orchestrating this silly theft will get fired and someone more mature can be rotated in.
There aren't many aerospace companies with annual revenues of around $130 million and satellites in space. I'd guess it's Planet Labs.