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Ask HN: How much copying another person's software idea is frowned upon?
I have recently discovered a really beautiful and brilliantly designed SaaS app that I am now using every day. I wanted to learn from it, and, as an exercise, to practice my frontend dev skills, I have essentially copied this app.
My design is a bit different, and I've improved a couple of things, but it's still essentially the same app(it's really hard to significantly improve upon, the original author has really done it right).
Now I realize, that if I will launch my version to the public, I could make a lot of money and achieve my dream of running a profitable SaaS. I'm highly confident that it will work, and there's plenty of space in the market for both of us. I'm also pretty sure that I won't run into copyright issues - my app is using a different tech stack and doesn't share any of the code with the original.
But I'm feeling a bit guilty for doing this, it feels like stealing. The original app is built by two very smart and good people, and is beloved by many users. Even though I will probably end up evolving this project in a different direction/niche, I'm still unsure if it's an okay thing to do.
How would you guys look at this? Do you think it's evil? Will it harm my reputation? Would you strongly dislike a person who's done something like this?
- mindcrime 10y ago> How would you guys look at this? Neutral > Do you think it's evil? No. > Will it harm my reputation? Probably not. > Would you strongly dislike a person who's done something like this? No. Ideas are cheap... execution counts. For any profitable business, there are always going to be people who come along and deploy the "fast follower" strategy or otherwise copy the core idea. Do you hate Walmart for copying the idea of Sears or Kmart? Do you hate Linus for copying the idea of Unix? Do you hate Apple for copying the idea of a GUI for PARC? Do you hate Microsoft for then copying the same idea from Apple? As long as you're sure that you are on solid legal footing as far as not literally copying anything that is copyrighted by the other company (including things like images and CSS styling, etc.) then I don't see a problem with it. Especially if you do have ideas of you own that you plan to incorporate, that deviate from the existing site.
- MiaDavis 10y agoThank you for your reply! This is good.
- abstractspoon 10y agoI know this is software and software is unlike other stuff, but if we were talking about a sport shoe, car design or other 'thing', where a lot of time, effort and money had clearly been spent then I would consider it unethical to copy it too closely without being clearly innovative in some area. It's not just an 'idea' that you are copying, it's the actual design and UX implementation. Imagine you were talking about MS Word or Photoshop...