I can't find the Otonomo API docs online. Have they been taken down?
https://docs.otonomo.io/docs/obtain-consent-from-a-driver
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Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
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Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
#162I expected this to be a " I had the idea first" post. But it is actually a copyright infringement post AND makes the offending company look like a bunch of hacks. If they don't have the engineering chops to build an API how are going to handle the ops of it.
Some people built the world's most popular operating system doing just that - copying Java's API.
But not their API documentation. They even copied the exact example UDID.
Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
#163This may be a silver lining - a competitor has shown that the work you have done, exactly the work you have done is worth 55 million in VC funding. There are enough people on here who can point you in the right direction, or arrange introductions. Spend at least one of those millions on PR and lawyers to ensure it's clear who has the moral high ground, and who should be hired if a company has to choose between you -…
> Summary: They are vulnerable - Get 'em
Or, go get $55 Million in VC funding from someone else.
You have a major head start. Your company is theoretically worth at least as much as theirs.
Complaining about competitors copying you might slow them down a bit. But it will probably slow you down a lot more. On the other hand, using their valuation to raise $55M+ would be a huge boost for you.
Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
#164I wish they identified Otonomo's IP address and served them a different (inaccurate) version of the product to copy instead.
Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can someone explain me what illegality did they do? Is it illegal to just copy some docs from somewhere on the web? are APIs copyrightable?
In the US, whether APIs are copyrightable is a question being currently litigated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_America,_Inc._v._Google... . The latest decision in that saga is that yes, they can be. Whether that holds up in the Supreme Court is an open question. Most of us hope it doesn't, I suspect. Copying documentation is definitely a copyright violation. Similar situation exists with recipes - a list of…
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Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
#166Holy crap. The only way forward for Bessemer et al. VCs is to immediately withdraw their funding for this “company” and cut all ties in order to prove that they had no forewarning that this is how their money was being used. There are so few actors this visibly bad that if they didn’t do anything they would become “that guy” everybody avoids, in both the deals and funding space, when orgs do their due diligence. So t…
Can someone explain me what illegality did they do? Is it illegal to just copy some docs from somewhere on the web? are APIs copyrightable?
The docs are definitely copyrighted. Same as if you wrote a blog post and they copied it, it would be copyright infringement.
Otonomo sounds like a deeply unethical and shady company. If I was doing any kind of business with them I would not continue to do so. While it would be hard to sue them, hopefully when you Google them in the future the fact they ripped of Smartcar will be one of the first results.
Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
#167Just read through the blog post. it's absolutely nuts.
I found more pages on their website https://imgur.com/a/35wax6T
Also their stats dashboard isn't secured: https://dashboard.otonomo.io/dashboard
you can see public data here
Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
#168Holy crap. The only way forward for Bessemer et al. VCs is to immediately withdraw their funding for this “company” and cut all ties in order to prove that they had no forewarning that this is how their money was being used. There are so few actors this visibly bad that if they didn’t do anything they would become “that guy” everybody avoids, in both the deals and funding space, when orgs do their due diligence. So t…
Bessemer & Co. would not spend this kind of money without doing DD to the point where their competitive review would have snagged the OP's efforts. So most likely they know.
> without doing DD
It's a Series A, serious DD doesn't usually happen this early and a jr. analyst with a finance background wouldn't catch something like this.
Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
#169I thought we all decided APIs shouldn't/couldn't be copyrighted because that was evil when Oracle and Microsoft tried to do it? I guess literally copy-pasting the docs is a flagrant violation, but it seems like that's the least of their problems. Presumably BigCorp will now get a cleanroom team to re-document the re-implemented API.
Well, "we" don't have authority to decide those things, do we?
It looks like API copying violates copyrights on the US, so go for it. In a democracy crazy laws can't be crazy just for the bad.
Re: Otonomo, with nearly $55M in funding, is cloning our product
#170This may be a silver lining - a competitor has shown that the work you have done, exactly the work you have done is worth 55 million in VC funding. There are enough people on here who can point you in the right direction, or arrange introductions. Spend at least one of those millions on PR and lawyers to ensure it's clear who has the moral high ground, and who should be hired if a company has to choose between you -…
> Summary: They are vulnerable - Get 'em Or, go get $55 Million in VC funding from someone else. You have a major head start. Your company is theoretically worth at least as much as theirs. Complaining about competitors copying you might slow them down a bit. But it will probably slow you down a lot more. On the other hand, using their valuation to raise $55M+ would be a huge boost for you.
"Your company is theoretically worth at least as much as theirs."
Maybe.
Having worked in the auto industry (albeit well over a decade ago), it is one of those industries where connections, and knowing how to navigate the relationships, goes a long way. I don't know much about either of these companies, or their founders, but in B2B scenarios like this, the value is often related to much more than just the underlying technology.
If I were Smartcar, I would look closely at relationships, physical and virtual proximity to major automotive players, and how their suppliers prefer to do business. And, perhaps they already have...