Is there a term yet for Rust projects rewriting GPL code to get it under non-gpl licenses?
Rustwashing?
Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
181–190 of 318 posts
Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
#182This is simply plagiarism of GPL-licensed code, and license-washing as well. I can understand working backwards from a test suite, but this literally just reads the original source: https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/grit/blob/main/AGENTS.md#sou... LLM users seem to live in another world where stealing everything that isn't bolted down, and passing it off as their own work, is acceptable.
I see it differently. I look at it as if I had written this code myself, using this same approach. Look at the docs, look at the tests, look at the source, implement something that is interactively compatible but a very different approach. For example, this is exactly what I did when I tried to get SSH commit signing working properly in GitButler: https://blog.gitbutler.com/signing-commits-in-git-explained You can se…
> I see it differently. I look at it as if I had written this code myself, using this same approach. Look at the docs, look at the tests, look at the source, implement something that is interactively compatible but a very different approach.
I could look at a C to Zig compiler in the same way: I read some C code, write the equivalent Zig code, repeat.
The compiler could also do some circumlocutions in order to provide an apparently different approach.
> I'm aware of this because I'm pretty sure I _personally_ am one of the only ones who has ever attempted to document the packfile binary format: https://schacon.github.io/gitbook/7_the_packfile.html
gitformat-pack?
> If you find any code in Grit that is clearly line-for-line copied, please point it out
Please hunt for specific lines to disprove your bold claim.
> and I will replace it.
Assuming the current claims here, that would just be license washing with volunteer assistance.
Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a problem with people with LLM psychosis who now think they have superpowers, they are completely unaware and just do things naively, they've lost all ability to think for themselves. The LLMs that are thinking for them certainly aren't going to tell them doing X is a bad idea, they're there to produce as many tokens as possible for their owners.
The motivation and rationale is there and was mentioned early on in the article. I’m all for the hundreds of reasonable objections but this sort of trash mindless critique is as useless as what it denounces.
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Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
#184This is simply plagiarism of GPL-licensed code, and license-washing as well. I can understand working backwards from a test suite, but this literally just reads the original source: https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/grit/blob/main/AGENTS.md#sou... LLM users seem to live in another world where stealing everything that isn't bolted down, and passing it off as their own work, is acceptable.
I see it differently. I look at it as if I had written this code myself, using this same approach. Look at the docs, look at the tests, look at the source, implement something that is interactively compatible but a very different approach. For example, this is exactly what I did when I tried to get SSH commit signing working properly in GitButler: https://blog.gitbutler.com/signing-commits-in-git-explained You can se…
> If you find any code in Grit that is clearly line-for-line copied, please point it out and I will replace it.
Why is it everyone else’s job to figure out if you’re compliant with the license? That’s your responsibility.
Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
#185You're asking people to trust you and hand their codebase/IP to your tool while showing them exactly how you treat other people's code/licenses by "deciding" to not carry forward the GPL license.
GitButler's source code is available, so we're not asking you to trust us much at all. https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/gitbutler
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Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
#186This is simply plagiarism of GPL-licensed code, and license-washing as well. I can understand working backwards from a test suite, but this literally just reads the original source: https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/grit/blob/main/AGENTS.md#sou... LLM users seem to live in another world where stealing everything that isn't bolted down, and passing it off as their own work, is acceptable.
I see it differently. I look at it as if I had written this code myself, using this same approach. Look at the docs, look at the tests, look at the source, implement something that is interactively compatible but a very different approach. For example, this is exactly what I did when I tried to get SSH commit signing working properly in GitButler: https://blog.gitbutler.com/signing-commits-in-git-explained You can se…
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Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
#187> In looking at the code that the LLMs have produced for the project, especially given the pretty massive and widespread architectural changes needed to make the implementation libified and memory safe, we decided that the codebase is not a derivative work that would require carrying forward the GPL license and have decided to release the code under the MIT instead. Hmm. That's going to be interesting.
I don't care if they can convince a judge. The fact that they even want to in the first place tells me what kind of people they are.
F-ing scumbags. It's already free, but they still decide to steal it.
Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
#188> In looking at the code that the LLMs have produced for the project, especially given the pretty massive and widespread architectural changes needed to make the implementation libified and memory safe, we decided that the codebase is not a derivative work that would require carrying forward the GPL license and have decided to release the code under the MIT instead. Hmm. That's going to be interesting.
Knowing what you don't know is such an important skill in life and your career. And I 100% agree with you that the author is, well, off their rocker. Let me give an example: I could take Goldeneye from the N64, extract the binary and then run it through an LLM to disassemble it and possibly rewrite it in a modern higher-level language. Do you think Nintendo would look at that and say "well, he did a lot of work so he…
heh - https://github.com/n64decomp/007
game decompilation and emulation is as old as computing
Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
#189This is simply plagiarism of GPL-licensed code, and license-washing as well. I can understand working backwards from a test suite, but this literally just reads the original source: https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/grit/blob/main/AGENTS.md#sou... LLM users seem to live in another world where stealing everything that isn't bolted down, and passing it off as their own work, is acceptable.
It’s all a bit voodoo to me but wouldn't the entire original source code be in the training data also?
Re: Grit: Rewriting Git in Rust with agents
#190This is simply plagiarism of GPL-licensed code, and license-washing as well. I can understand working backwards from a test suite, but this literally just reads the original source: https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/grit/blob/main/AGENTS.md#sou... LLM users seem to live in another world where stealing everything that isn't bolted down, and passing it off as their own work, is acceptable.
I'm terrified that this somehow seems acceptable to a large group of people. I'm baffled that other IP holders (say those who own valuable pieces of proprietary software, or music, or movies, or even the LLMs themselves) don't think leopards will come eat their faces next. This erosion of IP has to stop, or anyone who does any intellectual work will be absolutely screwed. If that only meant FOSS people, I'd be worrie…
I might even be fine with the loss of IP if everyone lost it.