My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated] • Hacker News Board

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#361

Post by whilenot-dev » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:22 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #344

whilenot-dev wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that phrase was coined in an era when the tech sector moved so fast that the prevailing law couldn't keep up. It caught up somewhat, but obviously there's still much leeway for improvement. Break all the wrong habits, rigid conventions and old traditions you want, just play along with the governing laws.

> the tech sector moved so fast that the prevailing law couldn't keep up That's an extremely charitable interpretation. A more realistic interpretation is that the law was up to date, just that enforcement couldn't keep up because 1) nobody expected such a brazen level of breaking the law and 2) justice doesn't really apply when you have enough capital.

> A more realistic interpretation is that the law was up to date

While I wouldn't disagree with your sentiment, just keep in mind that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) got implemented 2018.

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#362

Post by Nextgrid » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

j1elo wrote: post #255

" Since this was our first tax reporting, we didn’t realize at first that we're supposed to declare our income. We’ve now revised it. "

You are joking but that's exactly how it works as long as you are a company (and the bigger/more connected it is the better).

Don't pay your debts as a person: you quickly get hit with fees, chased by collections, etc.

Don't pay your debts as a company: sorry, it was merely a clerical error by our accounting department. Nothing to see here.

Lie and profit from it as an individual: that's called fraud and could land you in jail.

Lie and profit from it as a company: sorry, our website/documentation was out of date, our CS clerk was wrong and has since received additional training. Nothing to see here.

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#363

Post by rswail » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:28 PM UTC

matsemann wrote: post #122

jwilber wrote: post #31

Over the last decade or two, the builder/hacker ethos has seemed to shift towards this grifter, money-over-everything attitude. I’m sure there’s a lot at play (crypto culture, VC self-selection, the attraction of ‘easy’ high salaries), but I’m sure it’ll get markedly worse with ai tooling and the any-publicity-is-good fomo marketing that’s taken over the startup scene. My take is both OP’s tool and the blatant plagia…

Yeah, most VC founders on twitter are annoying and not worth following anymore. It used to be inspiring to follow some of them many years ago, see them build a cool product and sharing learnings. Now it's all just promotion, straight up lies, and their personal brand comes across as more important than actually building something. The "learnings" shared are now more tailored to go viral than actually help others etc.

Because I loath Nouning Verbs and Verbing Nouns, I'd really like "learnings" to always have an implied or explicit set of quotes and mean vaguely defined and not necessarily ethical stuff.

There's a perfectly good noun, "lessons" and a verb, "to learn" that, when combined, provide everything "learnings" does, without the pretension of using a verbed noun. It's like "diarize" and other even worse monstrosities.

Sorry to this poster, no personal attack intended, you just pushed one of my pedant buttons.

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#364

Post by Nextgrid » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC

reactordev wrote: post #308

gpderetta wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"we are sorry we got caught"

I would be running for the hills if I were YC. This is the kind of attitude that ends up in lawsuits.

YC is the company that (to this day!) has Yotta - a borderline scam to take advantage of financially-illiterate people - on their website after the whole thing has completely blown up and most customers lost their savings: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/yotta

Oh, and now they have their own rendition of the "Aviator" game often advertised by unregulated Eastern-European online casinos: https://members.withyotta.com/moonshot/. You can't make this shit up!

I wrote off YC after this. Maybe early on it was a mark of quality and good due-diligence, but now I'd argue it's the outright opposite - if it's funded by YC, buyer beware.

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#365

Post by rswail » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:32 PM UTC

mustntmumble wrote: post #24

esafak wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm having trouble mustering sympathy.

To paraphrase Voltaire, I mean, Tallentyre, I mean, Hall, I may not agree with what you publish under the GPL but I defend to the death your right to assert the GPL...

If you paraphrase, it's still a derivative work under copyright law. /s

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#366

Post by Nextgrid » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

whilenot-dev wrote: post #361

Nextgrid wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the tech sector moved so fast that the prevailing law couldn't keep up That's an extremely charitable interpretation. A more realistic interpretation is that the law was up to date, just that enforcement couldn't keep up because 1) nobody expected such a brazen level of breaking the law and 2) justice doesn't really apply when you have enough capital.

> A more realistic interpretation is that the law was up to date While I wouldn't disagree with your sentiment, just keep in mind that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) got implemented 2018.

I was thinking more about regulations around taxis, short-term rentals, etc for example.

As an aside, GDPR enforcement is so lacking (even today) it doesn't register on anyone's radar beyond those that fear-monger about it or sell snake oil to pseudo-comply with it. But even then, keep in mind most of what the GDPR has was already part of many countries' own legislation, and things like spyware were illegal even in the US (but again laws don't apply if you are a company and have enough capital).

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#367

Post by taytus » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

JonChesterfield wrote: post #246

"Fair enough. Since this was our first OSS project, we didn’t realize at first. We’ve now revised it. Thanks for your contribution." We didn't notice that we copied your codebase, changed the name then pretended to have built it in four days? Good grief.

This is the type of shit YC invest in? It has been like this for a long while. So fucking shady.

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#368

Post by weird-eye-issue » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:36 PM UTC

reactordev wrote: post #308

gpderetta wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"we are sorry we got caught"

I would be running for the hills if I were YC. This is the kind of attitude that ends up in lawsuits.

So what?

YC doesn't invest that much into any individual company and that's the most they would lose in the worst case scenario. So even if they behave badly they have a capped risk but unlimited upside

They're far more likely to just fail for other reasons, lawsuit is not going to happen regardless

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#369

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:36 PM UTC

buremba wrote: post #304

The clone now has more stars on GitHub than the original work, CheatingDaddy. What's funny is that in a week, most likely nobody will remember that the code was stolen, thus Pickle will probably be fine with their new, shiny, popular project, which will be featured in GitHub Trends. It's the same with another Soham, who was moonlighting for years. I would not be surprised if he starts a company soon, given the fame h…

[deleted]

Re: My open source project was relicensed by a YC company [license updated]

#370

Post by mathiaspoint » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 1:37 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #364

reactordev wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be running for the hills if I were YC. This is the kind of attitude that ends up in lawsuits.

YC is the company that (to this day!) has Yotta - a borderline scam to take advantage of financially-illiterate people - on their website after the whole thing has completely blown up and most customers lost their savings: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/yotta Oh, and now they have their own rendition of the "Aviator" game often advertised by unregulated Eastern-European online casinos: https://members.withyott…

Did you not understand what YC was? They're essentially an investment bank that doesn't accept new clients. They make money, they're not a charity. Quality only matters insofar as it drives sales and doesn't create liabilities.