4 ms·
Ask HN: How similar is too similar?
Hi there. Recently I was searching for a specific kind of web app, and found quite a few options, none of which were quite what I wanted. However, one was very close. (I'll call it Smokey.) Unfortunately, it has a few problems.
It seems like the Smokey's creators worked hard on making sure its core functionality performs well and is usable, but the site is fairly rough around the edges, and doesn't have a few features I'd enjoy having. Maybe more importantly, the creators seem to have moved on to greener pastures - while the site is still running, and ostensibly generating some income for the owners, it is barely supported (as evidenced by user complaints and topics about that very issue in the support forums).
I want to make my own version of this kind of web app, and likely even try to sell it once it is polished. My problem is that I'm enamored with Smokey's basic structure, and what I really want is to improve on it and add to it, rather than go in an entirely different direction. Obviously, though, if I did exactly that, I'd have ethical (and probably legal) problems.
I want to make a website that's similar to Smokey, but improved and more featureful. How can I do this without being a scumbag, and without getting into sketchy legal waters? How different does my site have to be? Thanks for your help!
- jacquesm 16y agoAs long as you don't copy any of smokey's code you should be fine, the rest is 'look and feel'. I'd stay away from copying their lay-out exactly, even if it might be legal it is bad form.
- nmusra 16y agoI have no intention to copy any code - it's the "look and feel" that interests me. The bad form is what I'm trying to avoid - I want to do this, but I want everything to be on the up-and-up. I'm just not sure what that entails.
- jacquesm 16y agoWell, consider google. When they rolled out the competition was called 'altavista'. Google did exactly what altavista did, the layout was roughly the same (in fact, googles was considerably simpler, and there were no ads at the time), there were search boxes, results pages and so on. The only thing different iirc, is that the altavista logo was mostly 'blue' and showed some mountains, the search box was yellow and they had a bunch of useless buttons on their homepage. So conceptually, not a lot of differences. But in execution there was a world of a difference.
- nmusra 16y agoSounds a little like "bad form". ;) In seriousness, how would you go about avoiding that? Doing what someone else is doing, better, still makes me uneasy if the two products seem too alike.
- jacquesm 16y agoIt's difficult. I would ask someone not familiar with the competitor to come up with a user interface, then maybe tweak it until I'd be happy with it. There are usually more paths that lead to a valid solution, but you're so 'in' to that other one that it can be hard to see that without starting from scratch. But since you've already seen it there is no 'from scratch' for you.
- dedward 16y agoLet the lawyers sort that one out - as long as you stay away from copyright violation, and as long as you are well informed as to the potential situations you might end up in, and have an idea how you might deal with them if something comes up, you're golden. Have a secondary look & feel ready to go..... If you're worried about hurting feelings and "doing the right thing" then you're going to get clobbered by people with more ambition and less scruples.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- JacobAldridge 16y ago
- Raphael 16y agoFriendfeed?
- nmusra 16y agoHaha. Not quite.
- byoung2 16y agoI've wondered about this as well. Consider the offline world...if I wanted to open a fast food burger chain, how different could it possibly be from McDonald's, Burger King, et al? Maybe I improve service, food quality, or speed, but the basics are all the same. Online, if you want to create a new auction site, search engine, or video sharing site, it will likely look like Ebay, Google, or YouTube. Is it just the code and business processes that are protected?
- nmusra 16y agoWell, I'm certain that the code is protected, but I think "look and feel" is a slippery thing. Regardless, even if it's completely legal to copy the entire look, I still want to be as ethical as I can.