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Can confirm. I made the first unofficial Dropbox client for Android years ago called "Droidbox". Different name, different logo, explicit labeling of "unofficia
by berdon 5y ago
Can confirm. I made the first unofficial Dropbox client for Android years ago called "Droidbox". Different name, different logo, explicit labeling of "unofficial" and they still wanted to sue the pants off me.
- Haul4ss 5y agoDid you tell them you could build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem?
- nindalf 5y agoFor those who don't get it, this is a reference to the greatest HN comment of all time - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863.
- tumblewit 5y agoI definitely laughed after reading this thread. Would advise others to read it.
- Haul4ss 5y agoI was afraid my reference was too old, and people would just downvote not understanding what the heck I was on about.
- ryandrake 5y agoThis one never gets too old. Even with the no-jokes policy here, I can't resist upvoting "you could build such a system yourself quite trivially" posts.
- fossuser 5y agoFor “greatest comment” I was thinking of cmdrtaco’s comment about the iPod, but I guess that was slashdot. https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i... HN is famous for knee-jerk dismissals of tech and companies that then go on to become wildly successful: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19270689 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19270689 Mostly HN comments about this kind of thing should be ignored. It’s easy to be critical and negative about anything new, it’s a lot harder to be right.
- slg 5y ago>HN is famous for knee-jerk dismissals of tech and companies that then go on to become wildly successful: It is extra funny to find this comment considering the top comment in this thread. Someone makes a good looking, simple, and useful app and the top comment is nothing about the work put in, the quality of the app, potential improvements, or anything like that. Instead it is a knee-jerk dismissal of "you’re going to get sued" and "hope you’ve got a lawyer." The more things change...
- aggie 5y ago"What you have built is illegal" is hardly the same as "I don't believe in your vision."
- slg 5y agoWhat they built isn't illegal. The naming and branding of what they built likely infringes on a trademark. Either way, the point was more this communities urge to knee-jerkingly dismiss a project for whatever reason. There is often a default of "this is why it won't work" or "this is why you are wrong".
- LegitShady 5y agoI loved my nomad...
- sachinag 5y agoThe greatest HN comment is obviously cperciva's: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079
- fossuser 5y agoYeah, you’re right - that one is my absolute favorite. Even includes a PG cameo. And getting a 53 on the Putnam at 14 is wild. I wonder how that happens, what leads to that (in addition to obvious high ability). Good parents? Early access to good books? Do some people just have a more intuitive sense for math? Tons of practice?
- rsync 5y agoI see your dropbox comment and raise you a "did you win the putnam": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079
- jraph 5y agoI never noticed that this comment, one of the best known of HN, is flagged.
- remix2000 5y agoThat reference is plain cruel. You’re a terrible person. :P
- johnwalkr 5y agoI love that HN is largely free from attempts at jokes, but I will laugh at this one every time.
- TomAnthony 5y agoLegitimate question, from someone who had just built an app (that will have a cost) that is a helper to Dropbox and has 'Dropbox' in the name. Where do you think the line is? There are several apps on the Mac app store that have 'Dropbox' in their name and are charged. Is the difference they they are all 'sidecar's that rely on you have Dropbox?
- kevin_thibedeau 5y agoWithout a license agreement they're all trademark violations. Pick a non-confusing unique name to save some trouble.
- jonny_eh 5y agoApparently Box is not confusing with Dropbox.
- papercrane 5y agoBox pre-dates Dropbox by a couple of years.
- slig 5y agoI wonder why they didn't go after a competitor named "Dropbox".
- rnotaro 5y agoSome negotiations probably happened behind the scenes. BOX, INC. v. DROPBOX, INC. | United States Patent and Trademark Office [1] [1] https://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=91200450&pty=OPP&eno=1 https://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=91200450&pty=OPP&eno...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ryandrake 5y agoInteresting. I once wrote/sold a voicemail-reading app that logged in, scraped Vonage's web site, and let you listen to your voicemail. I was careful to not use trademarked image assets, but I did mention that my software was compatible with their service, mentioning them by name in the app store description. They never went after me! Maybe I got very lucky, or I was just small potatoes. The app wasn't popular, so they didn't think they could squeeze any money out of me (they would be right).
- wnoise 5y agoIn theory, this should be okay under "Nominative Fair Use": You're only using the name to refer to the actual thing. People are more justifiably sued when their name for their product can be confused as being possibly associated with whatever they work with. In practice, you can get sued anyway. You'll probably win, but getting sued sucks even if you win.
- jscheel 5y agoI made the first unofficial Google Voice mobile app back in the day, and less that 100 people ever used it, so I didn't hear a daggum word from them. Would have been nice to catch their eyes though.
- dang 5y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27035901 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27035901.