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Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

blog.terrygodier.com

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Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#91

Post by lern_too_spel »

user43928 wrote: post #6

On the previous HN posts I got this impression: The developer's astrology app containing tarot reading features was rejected from Apple's App Store that prohibits astrology apps. He then replaced the app's content with a clone of, if not the identical open source astronomy app "Dark Hours", copying even the name. The original is here: https://darkhours.app The developer was then in contact with John Gruber, who wrote…

And Gruber, being Gruber, says that this guy's RSS reader is so good that it would prevent people from switching to Android. Sure.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#92

Post by simonw »

maratc wrote: post #47
whstl wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was interesting that his first retraction was due to a post being critical of Apple. Not that there hasn't been other critical posts, but he's very positive about the brand.

Gruber himself has written a number of posts critical of Apple, some of them scathingly so.

Yeah, any time I see someone accuse Gruber of being universally positive about Apple I think they can't have been reading his work very often.

Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino: https://daringfireball.net/2025/03/something_is_rotten_in_th...

Apple subsequently stopped providing Apple execs for his annual live podcast recording at WWDC. They don't confirm it was because of that piece (unsurprisingly) but it seems very likely it was.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#93

Post by Aurornis »

mechanicum wrote: post #36

I’d love to see the other repo, and the prompts that led to both. Did Godier copy the other guy’s repo, name and all, and try to pass it off as his own work? That seems like the obvious conclusion, albeit brazen to the point of insanity. Did Claude copy the repo, in response to a prompt? If Claude copies a Claude vibe-coded project, can any plagiarism really be said to have taken place? Or is this just what Claude is…

This is the Bluesky thread that Gruber linked where the original author calls out the copy: https://bsky.app/profile/mmmeh.bsky.social/post/3mslc3b3u4c2...

You can trace back to the original repo from that thread. The key points are that the copy had

1. The same name. One was "Dark Hours" and the other was "DarkHours".

2. The same highly specific bug. I didn't investigate closely but from the description the bug sounds too unique to have been identically created in a fresh Claude-style duplication.

The duplicated name is the most damning part to me. I've never tried to copy a project with Claude, but I can't imagine the sequence of events that would lead to Claude copying the name of a repo but going to lengths to disguise other things like stripping the license. This all seems highly intentional, like someone thought it would never be noticed.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#94

Post by CircuitSeuss »

chuckadams wrote: post #3

Yeah, the big bad AI made you plagiarize a whole project down to the name, and lie to everyone about the review process. Not buying any of it.

Why not?

There have been quite a few copyright cases alleging this behavior that LLMs are not substantially transformative[1]. Note that cases have largely been ruled in the favor of the AI companies, with courts ruling that model output is “substantially transformative” of training material (although what is currently legally permissible may not be what we feel is socially permissible or ethical). The the fact that these allegations continue to be made, and the fact that AI companies seem to be trying to cover their asses by disallowing prompts which would be likely to create content highly similar to that of copyrighted training material [2] might be enough to at least warrant some consideration that Godier is being honest here.

Not that this would absolve Godier (quite the opposite in my mind- low effort ai workflows produce slop, and he chose this intentionally), but perhaps some of the onerousness here also falls on the AI companies pillaging of work.

[1] https://copyrightalliance.org/ai-copyright-lawsuit-developme... E.g. https://nytco-assets.nytimes.com/2023/12/NYT_Complaint_Dec20...

[2] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/chatgpt-stops-cloning-fam...

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#95

Post by dofm »

whstl wrote: post #28
user43928 wrote: post #6

On the previous HN posts I got this impression: The developer's astrology app containing tarot reading features was rejected from Apple's App Store that prohibits astrology apps. He then replaced the app's content with a clone of, if not the identical open source astronomy app "Dark Hours", copying even the name. The original is here: https://darkhours.app The developer was then in contact with John Gruber, who wrote…

> I am not buying it. Coincidentally: Just in the last few weeks, D'addario, one of largest guitar string manufacturers, posted on Instagram what is clearly an AI-song to advertise its new line of guitar strings. After being called out on it being AI, they posted a mobile-recording of the song recreated in a DAW, but it didn't even match the timing or the notes played. After being called on it AGAIN, they blamed it o…

The already embattled Fender CEO said the other day that he plans for Fender to be at the "forefront" of AI, and that covering others' songs was "analogue AI".

The simple truth of the matter is that contempt for your customers is now normal. I expect this from Fender, now; they are utterly without soul.

But D'Addario are really one of the most analogue companies ever and they are still family-owned; they should have understood the magnitude of this problem right at the beginning and just apologised.

At least one of my three guitars will likely continue to have their PB strings, probably, because they still sound the best on my cheap Weissenborn clone.

But it is very disappointing and it leaves a bad taste. Perhaps I will revisit Rotosounds (wound in a factory very near where I grew up) for my PBs. The UK also has Newtone strings so I really have no reason to continue to support D'Addario (though the low-tension Aloha set I really like for the Weissenborn copy that lets me have a 15 on the high D is always backordered).

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#96

Post by rdiddly »

whstl wrote: post #28
user43928 wrote: post #6

On the previous HN posts I got this impression: The developer's astrology app containing tarot reading features was rejected from Apple's App Store that prohibits astrology apps. He then replaced the app's content with a clone of, if not the identical open source astronomy app "Dark Hours", copying even the name. The original is here: https://darkhours.app The developer was then in contact with John Gruber, who wrote…

> I am not buying it. Coincidentally: Just in the last few weeks, D'addario, one of largest guitar string manufacturers, posted on Instagram what is clearly an AI-song to advertise its new line of guitar strings. After being called out on it being AI, they posted a mobile-recording of the song recreated in a DAW, but it didn't even match the timing or the notes played. After being called on it AGAIN, they blamed it o…

Jeeeeezus. It's lies all the way down. Did we ever arrive at a true statement from them or is that where they left it?

The irony is how unnecessary it was. They could've just said, yeah you're right, we used AI. This is a level of lying you reserve for covering up a murder or something. Maybe they're just worried (and they're right to be worried) that it's easier to make music with AI than with their strings.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#97

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

K0balt wrote: post #77
chuckadams wrote: post #3

Yeah, the big bad AI made you plagiarize a whole project down to the name, and lie to everyone about the review process. Not buying any of it.

And it’s even more stupid because he just could have asked Claude to build it from scratch. I mean, it’s not Rocket science and all of the resources needed are in the public domain. It would be done in 3 days. 4 hours if you want to ship hot garbage.

> 4 hours if you want to ship hot garbage.

That seems to be the thing everyone is into, these days.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#98

Post by whstl »

rdiddly wrote: post #96
whstl wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not buying it. Coincidentally: Just in the last few weeks, D'addario, one of largest guitar string manufacturers, posted on Instagram what is clearly an AI-song to advertise its new line of guitar strings. After being called out on it being AI, they posted a mobile-recording of the song recreated in a DAW, but it didn't even match the timing or the notes played. After being called on it AGAIN, they blamed it o…

Jeeeeezus. It's lies all the way down. Did we ever arrive at a true statement from them or is that where they left it? The irony is how unnecessary it was. They could've just said, yeah you're right, we used AI. This is a level of lying you reserve for covering up a murder or something. Maybe they're just worried (and they're right to be worried) that it's easier to make music with AI than with their strings.

Lie and doubling down. And a lot of employees and endorsers fighting people in the comments, and calling people names. Not a good look.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#99

Post by whstl »

kibwen wrote: post #73
imdsm wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is clear: yes we use AI, and we're okay with it. There's no way Claude/AI recreated another persons app exactly, with the same name and branding, without being told to do so in some way. I just don't believe it. And him not using it and calling out AI is just him covering his ass

> The solution is clear: yes we use AI, and we're okay with it. Except that some portion of D'addario's customers--presumably those that actually buy their guitar strings to create music via real guitars--aren't okay with it.

I don't understand why you're getting downvoted, but you're correct. That's the reason for the complaints and the company has already taken an anti-AI stance precisely for this reason.

Re: Mea Culpa – Dark Hours

#100

Post by the_af »

scotty79 wrote: post #49
whstl wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not buying it. Coincidentally: Just in the last few weeks, D'addario, one of largest guitar string manufacturers, posted on Instagram what is clearly an AI-song to advertise its new line of guitar strings. After being called out on it being AI, they posted a mobile-recording of the song recreated in a DAW, but it didn't even match the timing or the notes played. After being called on it AGAIN, they blamed it o…

People online post timelapses for their AI generated artwork, that are also AI generated.

I've been thinking about this. Almost every way we have to tell human from AI apart can be adopted and automated by AI. It's sort of a corollary of "every metric can be gamed".

It's disheartening for those of us who intrinsically value human authorship.

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