Good Artists Copy; Great Artists Steal I know need to check on my Open source projects :)
Stolen from Pablo Picasso.
I did that on purpose. Since Jobs was from Valley
My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
221–230 of 536 posts
Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
#222An app which is build for cheating complains about cheating ...
The founders who built Glass don't complain about cheating. Rather, the developer of https://github.com/sohzm/cheating-daddy complained of copyright infringement of his code by the developers of Glass.
Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't need to be a lawyer to understand you can't just copy others' IP without checking if you're allowed to. By your argument, I can just torrent moviez and appz because I'm not a lawyer and can't be bothered with minutae of copyright law.
> By your argument, I can just torrent movies and appz becuase I'm not a lawyer and can't be bothered with minutae of copyright law. Indeed, there exist people who argue that in many areas law has become so complicated and unclear what is allowed or not that you cannot thus expect from ordinary citizens to obey the laws anymore - even if these citizens are willing to. Thus politicians do have an obligation to make th…
Yes. Personally I believe current copyright law is a massive outreach and mostly serves established big companies, not small creators and innovators. I'd like to see it curtailed by a lot.
That's no excuse for a VC-backed startup just ignoring it and YOLOing their way.
This actually disincentivises small creators (open source maintainers and contributors, in this case) from participanting in the very thing copyright is supposed to foster.
Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like this would be a pretty open and shut case of copyright infringement.
Pursuing something like this would perhaps cost more than 200k in the US. And then the startup would likely just fold and you get nothing in return.
Sending a DMCA takedown notice is free.
Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
#225There’s a reason they ask the question about describing a time you “hacked a system to your advantage” in the YC application. They have always selected for founders who are willing to take advantage of legal and ethical gray areas. Reddit created fake users and farmed content from Digg, Airbnb scraped listings from Craigslist.
This isn't "hacking the system", though - this is an open-and-shut violation of a license with a strong legal pedigree.
Which could be only resolved by lawsuit that cost money. Startup can just fold and the original creator still needs to pay lawyers.
So with this in mind, that startup is kind of hacking the system.
Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
#226To a casual outside observer the quality of the companies YC invests in seems to have absolutely cratered. Have they just given up on vetting and switched to a throw money at everything approach?
My feeling is that they are investing in founders who they find impressive who are working in AI. Not so much in the uniqueness of their ideas.
Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an interviewer, I'm seeing a huge increase in proportion of candidates cheating surreptitiously during video interviews. And it's becoming difficult to suspect any wrong-doing unless you're very watchful by looking for academic responses to questions. Why would anyone encourage building such a tool, I can't fathom.
It's pretty simple - people need to eat (and fulfill other basic needs, of course), to eat they need jobs, to get jobs they need to pass the interview. The hiring process in a lot of industries is heavily gamed at this point, to the point that not cheating is basically an automatic fail. So, if you want to eat, you cheat.
Doing whatever it takes to get the foot in the door may be encouraged, but only to a point and I think out and out cheating is probably crossing a line... As would murder, arson etc. etc.
If cheating means asking someone in the company you're interviewing for a peek at what will be asked then great. In my book that's using leverage.
Reviewing previously posted interview tests is probably recommended.
Hooking up a copilot to answer interview questions for you in real time is probably less so.
Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
#228And it has the same fake excuse as usual "Since this was our first OSS project, we didn’t realize at first." He sure discovered this new open source thing and it's very confusing. It's not like it's almost 40 years old at that point. I'll never understand people who lie like toddlers.
I do not know what is wrong with software engineers. This is theft (or whatever the lawyers says in the IP law) and now stating: Ooops we did not know, our bad, we keep it till we have found a replacement. Mistakes happen also in real life, but libraries is a common thing, like cars standing on a street. You do not accidently steal a car. Software Engineering is more than coding. Basic license management incl. librar…
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Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
This incompetence excuse puts YC in a bad spotlight too, because it makes them look like they are funding people with exact zero software development experience.
TBH, I know plenty of people with software development experience, who I think are genuinely pretty good at converting ideas to code, but who wouldn't have any idea what Apache or GPL mean.
Every init-command requires you to define or at least review a license for your project, so I would refrain from calling that one "software development experience".
Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like this would be a pretty open and shut case of copyright infringement.
Pursuing something like this would perhaps cost more than 200k in the US. And then the startup would likely just fold and you get nothing in return.
Hire a lawyer to send a legal notice. Costs practically nothing and since it's an open and shut case, free money for the lawyer (if they charge based on damages), or the startup caves and shuts down.