4 ms·

They stole wordpress code, so much for being a trusty israeli company

muglug 6y ago
“Stole” is doing a lot of work here. They copied strictly-licensed open-source code, violating the terms of the license in the process.
- adgjlsfhk1 6y ago
  Which according to current copyright law is theft.
  - rsstack 6y ago
    According to current copyright law it is not theft. It is "infringement", a separate legal term. It is also generally not a criminal offense but a civil offense, unlike theft.
    - lostcolony 6y ago
      You wouldn't download a car, would you? I kid; point is, while all the technicalities being thrown around are lovely, the fact you -can't- literally steal code probably does mean that those using the term 'steal' do in fact mean IP infringement.
      - muglug 6y ago
        I think there are times where "steal" is appropriate — where the code is in some sort of silo, and someone exfiltrates it. Anthony Levandowski was charged with theft of trade secrets for making a copy of Waymo's code.
        lostcolony 6y ago
        Yes, but that was removing someone's ability to control access to something. That is, they -have- taken something from someone else; control of an idea. That's irrespective of code (and, in fact, I don't think I recall seeing code listed as something Levandowski took, but rather schematics and blueprints and the like). I.e., Levandowski was not sued for 'stealing' code (by copying it onto a thumb drive); after all, Waymo still had the code. He was sued for stealing the ability to control access from Waymo. But that furthers my point - this semantic game obscures the core point, which I think everyone agrees on.
    - type0 6y ago
      In some jurisdictions it definitely is a criminal offense and is compared to theft in the law itself thanks to unregulated lobbying of media conglomerates. edit: I'm not saying it's good that it has become equivated to theft, we have anti-pirate legislation to thank for this. I would call pirating infringement, but license violation is much more akin to theft than anything.
- jessaustin 6y ago
  The next time I get a DMCA takedown notice, I'm going to try some of this quibbling about the word "stole". I'll let you folks know how it turns out...

“Stole” is doing a lot of work here. They copied strictly-licensed open-source code, violating the terms of the license in the process.

adgjlsfhk1 6y ago
Which according to current copyright law is theft.
- rsstack 6y ago
  According to current copyright law it is not theft. It is "infringement", a separate legal term. It is also generally not a criminal offense but a civil offense, unlike theft.
  - lostcolony 6y ago
    You wouldn't download a car, would you? I kid; point is, while all the technicalities being thrown around are lovely, the fact you -can't- literally steal code probably does mean that those using the term 'steal' do in fact mean IP infringement.
    - muglug 6y ago
      I think there are times where "steal" is appropriate — where the code is in some sort of silo, and someone exfiltrates it. Anthony Levandowski was charged with theft of trade secrets for making a copy of Waymo's code.
      - lostcolony 6y ago
        Yes, but that was removing someone's ability to control access to something. That is, they -have- taken something from someone else; control of an idea. That's irrespective of code (and, in fact, I don't think I recall seeing code listed as something Levandowski took, but rather schematics and blueprints and the like). I.e., Levandowski was not sued for 'stealing' code (by copying it onto a thumb drive); after all, Waymo still had the code. He was sued for stealing the ability to control access from Waymo. But that furthers my point - this semantic game obscures the core point, which I think everyone agrees on.
  - type0 6y ago
    In some jurisdictions it definitely is a criminal offense and is compared to theft in the law itself thanks to unregulated lobbying of media conglomerates. edit: I'm not saying it's good that it has become equivated to theft, we have anti-pirate legislation to thank for this. I would call pirating infringement, but license violation is much more akin to theft than anything.
jessaustin 6y ago
The next time I get a DMCA takedown notice, I'm going to try some of this quibbling about the word "stole". I'll let you folks know how it turns out...