[HN Gopher] My open source project got stolen by a HN user
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My open source project got stolen by a HN user
Hey everyone, I've got a bit of a situation and could use some
insight. So, I created this open-source project called Outstatic
(https://outstatic.com), it's been my pet project for a while. But
here's the twist: I just found out someone on HN
(https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=hoofhearted) took my entire
project, renamed it, and has been showing it off all over the
internet as their own thing. I'm not usually one to call people
out, but this is just too much. The only reason I found out was
because this person was asking for help with my project on our
Discord server, and I got curious. Turns out, they've been
pretending to develop this 'new' project since April and have even
been warned by the mods here for spamming about it. When I casually
mentioned that I stumbled upon their project and that it looked
cool, they went on and on about their 'original vision' and even
had the nerve to ask me to join them as a co-founder! I understand
that open source means people can use and modify the work, but
claiming total credit and denying any connection to the original
project? That's a bit much. I did bring up the issue of giving
credit and licensing, and the response was a vague promise of
'eventually' doing it. Just wanted to get this off my chest and
see what you all think. It's a weird spot to be in, for sure. He's
fooled a bunch of people into joining and contributing to "his
project". So I feel like I should at least warn them that they are
making contributions to a "stolen" project. Here's a list of posts
where this person claims they built everything and intentionally
mention all the tech stack but leaves "Outstatic" out of it:
https://dub.sh/code-theft
Author : AndreVitorio
Score : 47 points
Date : 2023-11-16 18:52 UTC (4 hours ago)
| mikequinlan wrote:
| A risk is that this other person will claim to be the original
| author and sue or otherwise attack you for copying their work. I
| am not a lawyer, but in your case I would contact one and make
| sure that I had enough documentation of my authorship to survive
| a legal claim.
|
| (My experience is in the United States only; things might be
| different in other countries).
| solardev wrote:
| Won't the github timestamps show which came first?
| JPLeRouzic wrote:
| Something curious is that the oldest tag I can find on Github
| from Elegant is from March 16 [1], while the oldest tag I can
| find from Outstatic is from March 26 [2]
|
| [1] https://github.com/elegantframework/elegant-
| cli/tree/v1.0-al...
|
| [2] https://github.com/avitorio/outstatic/tags?after=v0.0.37
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| Commits tell a different story:
|
| https://github.com/elegantframework/elegant-
| cli/commit/8d8d8... (March 2023)
|
| https://github.com/avitorio/outstatic/commit/76c82a05cf8289
| 6... (August 2022)
| None4U wrote:
| commits can be overwritten, what is actually reliable
| here is GitHub's "event stream"
| AndreVitorio wrote:
| Maybe this? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33306029
| gt565k wrote:
| Well, your license gave them permission to pretty much do
| anything. As nefarious as it may be, it is not illegal.
|
| https://github.com/avitorio/outstatic/blob/canary/license.md
| AndreVitorio wrote:
| Yes, MIT License allows for modification, not going around
| claiming you wrote all the code.
| solardev wrote:
| It's not really about the law either, it's just a total dick
| move. They could've approached the OP about being co
| maintainers, or simply say that it's a forked version with
| improvements, or whatever. No need to steal credit and
| impersonate the OP.
| not_your_vase wrote:
| The first thing that came to my mind after reading your post was
| the philmarilion from 4chan. Collecting these posts and
| submitting them with all these commentaries is.. a bit creepy. I
| find collecting stuff to be a good idea, but publishing them in
| this manner is another thing, seems to be a very knee-jerk
| reaction.
|
| When I compare the two projects, I do see that you are right, he
| obviously just copy-pasted, I do understand your outrage. Why are
| you trying to shame him here, where your post will be compost in
| a matter of hours, instead of opening an issue or two (phrased
| more diplomatically) in his github project, and post the link
| here?
| AndreVitorio wrote:
| Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't experienced this before so
| I'm not even sure how to react. I'm just astonished that people
| like this exist, taking work that you know isn't yours and
| pitching investors and other devs as your own?
|
| I'm sorry, I think this guy needs to be put on blast. I tried
| doing this in a more diplomatic way through our Discord dms,
| but in no moment was any expression of regret or wrong doing
| brought up.
| seattle_spring wrote:
| Why do you think thieves should be treated with respect, and
| respond well to diplomacy?
| serf wrote:
| >Why are you trying to shame him here, where your post will be
| compost in a matter of hours, instead of opening an issue or
| two (phrased more diplomatically) in his github project, and
| post the link here?
|
| the social effects on HN are stronger than Github issues;
| surely you must realize that.
| codegeek wrote:
| It is definitely unfair at say the least. I do see that their
| About text in Github has outstatic but that is it. If the code
| was directly copied pasted (regardless of MIT license), he should
| at least mention your project as a courtesy. This is why we can't
| have nice things. I don't know how to help you more but I do feel
| your pain and I wish there weren't people like this in the world.
| But they do exist.
| AndreVitorio wrote:
| Yes, he just added that. After a long discussion he said he was
| "about to do it" and it was just a big coincidence that I
| brought it up. After 6 months of going around claiming he wrote
| all the code.
| sydbarrett74 wrote:
| Relevant portion below, taken from this page
| (https://dev.to/sadeedpv/someone-copied-my-code-on-github-
| and...):
|
| 'With the MIT license, you should really also put your copyright
| and license notices at the top of each source file in a comment
| in addition to the license file in the repo. This way if someone
| uses one or more files but not entire repo, your copyright notice
| and license declaration stays with your code, unless they
| deliberately remove it. With only a license file you risk someone
| who only needs one of your source files separating those notices
| from your code accidentally with no ill-intention toward you or
| your work.'
| ricardobeat wrote:
| I checked the source code in both projects and it seems that a
| fair amount of rework has happened already. They don't really
| look alike beyond bits of structure and the basic layout.
|
| This is exactly the intent of a MIT license. The only unfair
| aspect is that they seem to have removed the original license
| notice, which is a requirement.
|
| Their project is MIT licensed too, so if you like what they're
| doing you can play your Uno reverse card!
| AndreVitorio wrote:
| The /source directory in his repo is 90% our code. But look,
| I'm not mad he is using our project, it's open source after
| all. I'm happy it is and people can do whatever with the code.
|
| What I'm exposing here is an attempt at making people believe
| he is the author of said code. Not someone who took 90% of a
| project and is building something with it, but that he wrote
| the entirety of the code.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Tell HN:
| simne wrote:
| Sorry disclaimer, I'm too lazy to immediately check everything
| myself, but will, and will write confirmed or not-confirmed.
|
| So, I read comments and few surface details. What I note:
|
| 1. Original project is MIT licensed. MIT only forcing, IF you use
| it, to make special page with mentions of all MIT licensed code
| used in project and nothing more.
|
| 2. ANY software project could being divided to separate
| independent parts, which will be then rewritten based on clean
| room methodology, and after this you could just remove ANY
| mentions of MIT licensed code which was used earlier. As I
| understand, person who copied your project, rewritten all your
| code himself and NOW he have not any your code in project.
|
| Unfortunately, now you only can do something much exceed
| properties of your tween, so he will have to race with you or
| you'll win.
| oneepic wrote:
| I think you're right that he stole your work without proper
| attribution. I'd suggest reporting his Reddit thread(s) if you
| haven't already. Or start a new thread like this HN one.
| AndreVitorio wrote:
| Thanks for the suggestion. I did create a thread on Reddit:
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/nextjs/comments/17wujjc/my_open_sou...
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(page generated 2023-11-16 23:02 UTC)