9 ms·
Hi Napolux, It looks like your site is using a theme based on my website (https://ruudvanasseldonk.com/ https://ruudvanasseldonk.com/, source at https://github
by ruuda 6y ago
Hi Napolux,
It looks like your site is using a theme based on my website (https://ruudvanasseldonk.com/ https://ruudvanasseldonk.com/, source at https://github.com/ruuda/blog https://github.com/ruuda/blog). That is fine — it is open source after all, licensed under the GPLv3. But I can’t find the source code for your site, and I can’t find any prominent notices saying that you modified my source. Could you please add those?
- RhodesianHunter 6y agoDespite how it sounds, I ask this with zero judgment and pure curiosity. Why do you care?
- kungato 6y agoWell I respect the question of GP if nothing then for principle. People should get their shit together and start respecting the license. The state today is horrendous and the culture is evolving into less and less respect of the license. If people don't follow them personally they wont care to follow them professionally either
- timy2shoes 6y agoPlease read https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/principles.html https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/principles.htm.... My understanding is that if you do not enforce your copyright (or copyleft in this case) you can lose the copyright.
- john_alan 6y agoCause it’s his special.
- mpoteat 6y agoI can only guess at motivations, but holistically people need to enforce their license terms or they lose their teeth.
- mastermojo 6y agoThe author probably cares about either copy-left or the right to tinker. Some people believe it's important and others don't. Basically any derivative product out of GPL3 code needs to either be open-source/copy-left, or if it uses the code as a library needs to let end users substitute that library for their own version.
- jimmaswell 6y agoWorse than unimportant, I find copyleft harmful to the developer community as a whole. Software is hardly "free" when you have to bend to the author's demands to license your entire rest of your project under their ideology if you want to use it, and I think we should stop calling it so. Maybe "Conditionally Free Software" instead. You're hardly helping the world releasing libraries in terms that nobody but hobbyists (who are going to rip your code out and replace it if they start making a proprietary product, which is not evil) will find acceptable. It works for the Linux kernel and self-contained applications but that's it.
- Drakim 6y agoCopyleft is about maximizing the users's rights, not the developers's rights. Companies can't take linux, put it on a router for sale, and then say that their customers/users aren't allowed to know what's going on on the box in terms of backdoors and spying. The users have a right to look at the source code if they wish.
- jimmaswell 6y agoUsers don't care about any of that, but developers are certainly hindered by restrictive licenses, which in turn hurts users. I never found a right to see source code compelling as a real right. To read the assembly and modify something they bought, sure, but not an entitlement to the source.
- dahfizz 6y agoNobody is forcing you to use GPL code. It is stinking of entitlement to demand that you get to use other people's code regardless of what they think about it.
- ruuda 6y agoI made my site open source so others who like it can take a look at how it works, or give it their own twist. Visitors of my site can see that they have that freedom, but visitors of an adaptation might not know if it’s not stated anywhere.
- naikrovek 6y agoYou're not wrong to request attribution. I don't know why you're getting so much flak.
- square_usual 6y agoLots of people don't like the GPL (I love it myself, for reasons stated in the GP), and seeing it enforced in real time brings that debate up again.
- playingchanges 6y agoKind of an odd request for an open source wordpress blog theme imo
- ricardobeat 6y agoThey look similar at a glance (border-top + Calluna font), so he might have taken inspiration from yours, but doesn't seem to have used any of your assets - the styles are clearly different and based on the WP 'BlankSlate' theme. (my personal blog had a top border like that a decade ago, when styles on the body were a novelty :))
- napolux 6y agoI took inspiration but I didn’t know he was sharing the code for is blog https://github.com/napolux/coding.napolux.com/ https://github.com/napolux/coding.napolux.com/
- ruuda 6y agoI checked the source and it does indeed mention https://wordpress.org/themes/blankslate/ https://wordpress.org/themes/blankslate/, but judging from the screenshot there, that theme is just really a blank theme with no style at all, and it was used to include a different stylesheet. The real style is at https://coding.napolux.com/wp-content/themes/coding.napolux.com/styles/compiled/index.css https://coding.napolux.com/wp-content/themes/coding.napolux...., which looks like normalize.css followed by a Wordpress adaptation of my stylesheet. The similarity is more than superficial, the footer headers match exactly.
- thelean12 6y agoCome on, this is super petty. And that includes your license choice and your enforcement for this.
- jasonlotito 6y agoSo, just to be clear, you are perfectly fine with someone taking something someone else created and violating the terms upon which they were given that thing? e.g. If I took code you wrote and lets say released under an MIT license and claimed I wrote it and didn't give you any credit, and in fact released it under another license entirely, you'd be fine with that?
- napolux 6y agoSure man no problem. The code for my theme is here BTW with credits To your original blog https://github.com/napolux/coding.napolux.com/ https://github.com/napolux/coding.napolux.com/
- ruuda 6y agoThanks, I’m flattered to see it be used as inspiration :) I searched quickly but I didn’t find that repository. You might want to link it somewhere in your footer or from a comment in the html.
- napolux 6y agoSure, no problem
- apolymath 6y agoFlattered that your few, boring lines of CSS and HTML (that could easily be reproduced by a monkey) was used on someone else's website?
- dang 6y agoWe've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- archon810 6y agoToxic comments have no place on HN. Thank you for policing them so diligently.
- DJBunnies 6y agoThat isn't how you hacker news.
- asveikau 6y ago
- dubcanada 6y agoIt appears to be a serif font and a border top. That's all it is? Am I missing something.
- ganstyles 6y agoDesign layman here, switching between the two sites the top bar looks similar (it's just a solid line) except a different color and slightly different height. I don't see other similarities or assets coming from your site? Can you explain this request; I'm not sure two sites both using a blank horizontal rule across the top is something I would personally call out as similar.
- PetahNZ 6y agoMy understanding is unless he's distributing it (not just serving it from a website) he doesnt need to release his changes. That's what the AGPL is for.
- ThrustVectoring 6y agoIt's not the copyright on the server code that is at issue, but the copyright on the HTML and CSS files (and portions thereof) that get distributed by the server.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- onli 6y agoYou see the contradiction, right? If it's about the HTML and the CSS the user has that code directly by visiting the site. No further action would be needed. If it's about something that creates the HMTL and CSS, then OP has no requirement because of the GPL just from people visiting the site and accessing the output CSS/HTML. Because that's not distributing the code as defined by the GPL. The original author should have used the AGPL for that case - and if it's really just about HTML/CSS a different license altogether.
- dahfizz 6y ago> If it's about the HTML and the CSS the user has that code directly by visiting the site. No further action would be needed. Wrong. Transmitting modified GPL works requires more than just distributing the source: a) The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified it, and giving a relevant date. b) The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is released under this License and any conditions added under section 7. This requirement modifies the requirement in section 4 to “keep intact all notices”. c) You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. This License will therefore apply, along with any applicable section 7 additional terms, to the whole of the work, and all its parts, regardless of how they are packaged. This License gives no permission to license the work in any other way, but it does not invalidate such permission if you have separately received it. d) If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your work need not make them do so. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
- johnwheeler 6y agoNext time, have some courtesy for the author and the rest of us by requesting via personal exchange over email instead of hijacking the thread and distracting from the conversation.
- mhh__ 6y agoIf it were a financial thing I'd agree but if you aren't complying with the GPL I think it's good to set an example (but not shaming)
- LoSboccacc 6y agowhoa there. the gpl v3 only require to have the gpl v3 declaration visible and to be copmpliant source code can be provided on demand, no need to have a source code link in the object as long as a a contact is available and the code is provided at a reasonable cost.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoBoo hiss. There’s plenty of room here for a polite exchange between professionals. Collapse the thread and move on.
- oh_sigh 6y agoThe question is why does everyone need to read what really could first be something done on a private communication.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoNo body is forcing you to read anything. Though I will concede: reading is involuntary to literate adults. Having said that, there’s currently, what? 28 comments in this thread. Is that indicative enough that at least some people have derived value from it?
- napolux 6y agoCome on. I love Ruud's posts and I took inspiration for my blog. He was right asking for a link, which I gladly provided. That's it for me.
- maxk42 6y agoGPL license states you must provide source code to the end-user. In this case, the end-user is legally Napolux, not the visitors to his site.
- userbinator 6y agoIn any case, View -> Source The source code of a public website is automatically provided to everyone who visits it. This fact is unfortunately not well-known.
- mulmen 6y agoThat's... not how webpages work. This is why the AGPL even exists.
- napolux 6y agoHello there. I've added a link to your website in the footer! :) https://coding.napolux.com/ https://coding.napolux.com/ Thanks for reaching out!
- ruuda 6y agoAwesome, thank you! Sorry for derailing your thread, I did not mean for my comment to escalate like it did.
- apolymath 6y agoYour request is extremely petty and you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself, give up on your career as a web developer, and do something else with your life.
- laughinghan 6y agoYour blog is awesome! I'm really glad you commented here, or I wouldn't have found it. I even forwarded your most recent post to some friends.