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Instagram is threatening legal action against Pixelfed
- jarbus 4y agoFunny, considering how instagram just straight up ripped-off tik tok with instagram reels.
- anthropodie 4y agoCorrect me if I'm wrong, but I think stories was a snapchat feature originally.
- BruceEel 4y agoRather shamelessly in fact. They did copy the infinite video scroll from TikTok, among other things.
- thehappypm 4y agoIsn’t that just a different form factor for Instagram? They already had an infinite feed of content, many of which videos; TikTok made it full screen
- xnx 4y agoTiktok's UI choices (auto-play, full screen video, default feed, swipe instead of scroll, etc.) were distinctive enough to be considered something novel.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mynameisvlad 4y agoReels are different from Stories, but yes, both features were copied from TikTok and Snapchat.
- charcircuit 4y agoNot originally. Korean social media apps had them before snapchat.
- jrnichols 4y agoVine was around for quite a while too. well, 2013-2016 at least.
- theCrowing 4y agoJust change your mobile UI from being a carbon copy to something original? They even copied the names of the filters. A cease and desist seems justified.
- Kye 4y ago[flagged]
- dannyw 4y agoIt's absurd to think a highly technical case around fair use for API compatibility would bear any sort of relevance here.
- nulbyte 4y agoAfter reading the albeit messy thread, no, it seems the names of the filters are the issue. They are trademarked. So the developer prepended them with the letter 'i' two hours ago. I'm not sure the developer understands the issue properly. You can't use someone else's trademarks in your competing product as if they were your own marks.
- Kye 4y ago[flagged]
- theCrowing 4y agoHow do you know if he's not a lawyer? You are dashing out assumptions left and right and are criticizing others for it. And yes, they have trademarks and patents for part of their UI and product names. You can easily check them out by using the uspto website.
- Kye 4y ago>> "How do you know if he's not a lawyer?" I checked first. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Anulbyte%20%22not%20a%20lawyer%22&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... >> "You can easily check them out by using the uspto website." I actually couldn't! I looked as best as I could. Their search engine is horrible. Maybe you could offer a link rather than make uncharitable assumptions. edit: >> "No, I am not your servant." Asking you to show your work is not asking you to be a servant. edit: since HN won't let me reply anymore (rate limit) >> "What work? I told you how to look up trademarks and patents. I can do it again: If you want to look up trademarks and patents you can use the search function on the uspto website." As I said: I did. Nothing came up that had anything to do with these filters. Feel free to keep arguing with phantoms here. I'm moving on since you clearly aren't paying attention.
- DoItToMe81 4y agoDoes anybody have more information? This is quite sparse.
- jlmb 4y agoThere is this additional post: “Someone who works at Meta reached out and advised me to rename the filters asap.” [1] So maybe the issue is simply that Pixelfed is using identical filter names. [1] https://mastodon.social/@dansup/109596825332511647 https://mastodon.social/@dansup/109596825332511647
- cowsup 4y agoNever heard of Pixelfed, but it's sort of shady that, the moment they received notice that they shouldn't be copying a trillion-dollar company's product 1:1, they immediately cry that they need more donations. Just rename the filters, and maybe make tweaks so they aren't exactly the same, and then suddenly Meta has no standing.
- anthropodie 4y ago> Never heard of Pixelfed, You may not have but that community is actually very active. I posted 5-6 photos on pixelfed and it had more engagement than my total Instagram engagement over 5-6 years.
- cowsup 4y agoI don't doubt it. I just wanted to specify that I've had no prior bias one way or another with regard to the service.
- jhfrjn 4y agoLol, it's federated, you don't post "on Pixelfed" you post on whatever host you're on and maybe that host is federated to lively other hosts
- ViViDboarder 4y agoYea. And you’re not “on the internet”. It’s a series of nodes that talk with each other and route requests between them. /s There is no strict technical definition of “on” in this case.
- weird-eye-issue 4y agohttps://w1.pixelcdn.net/assets/images/pixelfed-app-feed.png https://w1.pixelcdn.net/assets/images/pixelfed-app-feed.png Well the UI looks exactly like Instagram
- jeroenhd 4y agoDoes it? It looks like a generic photo sharing app to me. The iconography is different, the UI controls in the top are different and the list of faces at the top of the page are gone. The only matching icons I can see are the heart shape (hardly original) and the speech bubble for commenting (also hardly original). For a company shamelessly copying from other apps, it's quite silly for Instagram to send a cease and desist letter to Pixelfed.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- esperent 4y ago> It looks like a generic photo sharing app to me. Is this the tech version of the Seinfeld Effect? https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunn...
- lelandfe 4y ago> The only matching icons I can see are the heart shape (hardly original) and the speech bubble for commenting (also hardly original). Nearly everything I’m seeing was pretty clearly cribbed from IG‘s UI throughout the years. You can see more similarities in this 2016 screenshot: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/05/11/instagram-redesigns-iphone-app/ https://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/05/11/instagram-redesigns... And their use of the navigator icon for discover is also a play on an even older IG interface. Dunno if it’s enough for a suit but it’s pretty, uh, direct.
- ceejayoz 4y ago> Nearly everything I’m seeing was pretty clearly cribbed from IG‘s UI throughout the years. It's a little rich for Instagram to complain about UX theft, given Stories (Snapchat) and Reels (TikTok).
- beardedman 4y agoPeople in this thread seem to be confusing copying an idea vs. copying actual IP. There is nothing stopping anyone from creating a TikTok clone, but there sure as hell are laws stopping anyone from directly ripping the UI (which Pixelfed did in this case).
- berkes 4y agoBoth aren't the problem here though. Pixelfed used the exact same list of filter-names (image effects) as Instagram. Which is probably an oversight - I'd imagine its even a copy-paste from some hackernews/opensource/tutorial. Neither the UI was ripped, nor the implementation cloned. It's all about the names used in a feature.
- beardedman 4y agoRead my original post. > copying actual IP. This is exactly the problem they're facing. PS; labels & text are part of the UI.
- nomel 4y ago> from creating a TikTok clone, but there sure as hell are laws stopping anyone from directly ripping the UI This is contradictory.
- beardedman 4y agoIt's really not.
- themusicgod1 4y ago> vs. copying actual IP. there is no "actual IP", just copyright, trademarks, user interface design elements, software patents and so on.
- Alifatisk 4y agoInstagram didn't mind copying Snap and beReal.
- rdl 4y agoI had no idea people still used filters on instagram.
- TechBro8615 4y agoIf I post something to Instagram, then I delete it, or make my profile private, will it remain available on Pixelfed? IMO, this should be the litmus test for fair use of social networks by third-party clients.
- PufPufPuf 4y agoPixelfed does not source data from Instagram.
- parker01011001 4y agoIs it because of the filters?
- DueDilligence 4y ago.. if this only about renaming filter names .. I do not get why pixelfeed made it an issue to even publish. I despise meta as much as anyone - but there was zero need for a shit post.
- rdl 4y agoI wonder if this was just lazy MVP development or a conscious strategy to get attention. I never would have heard of them without this controversy, and it's something very cheap for them to fix (just rename). Probably need to attract more than just HN, but if they can somehow turn this into a few mainstream press articles about "tiny Mastodon photo service attacked by Mark Zuckerberg, personally!", it's a win, especially since the remedy is renaming an internal product feature where the names themselves aren't even significant. (Probably doing a "community poll to come up with new names" would be a worthwhile growth hack, too.)
- nlh 4y agoOk, so this appears to be over the fact that Pixelfed copied the names of the Instagram filters 1:1. They are not generic names like "blur" or "enhance" -- they are very specific names that Instagram has associated with their filters for years, like "Clarendon" and "Ludwig". I'm sort of reading this thread and the Mastodon thread in disbelief at the defenders. Just change the names of the darn filters! (and not "iClarendon" and "iLudwig" for heaven's sake -- that is so childish.) There are fights worth fighting out there -- abusive patent trolls, etc. -- this is not one of them. If this escalates they will lose 100% and waste tons of time and money, both of which could be better spent on actually building Pixelfed. Sorry -- not the world's biggest Meta/FB/IG fan here but I am 100% with them on this one and if I were in charge I'd make the exact same threats. /rant over.
- keewee7 4y agoIt's not just the filter names. Their UI also looks identical to Instagram. Why are they copying Instagram 1:1 when the Instagram UX sucks so much?
- ceejayoz 4y agoInstagram's UX sucks because of all the ads they stuffed it with in the last few years, not because of interface troubles.
- Waterluvian 4y agoI dunno. It’s kinda crummy in some ways. Maybe because I’m not a streets ahead kid with friends to teach me all the ways of the Instagram? Off the top of my head: - you’re supposed to know that various edge swipes get you things - I have two feeds apparently? There’s the home page and the middle bottom button - you can’t do most things to an existing video, you must record it live, in Instagram, for most of the effects (eg. my kids did a hilarious Christmas morning dance and I realized it would be a good Boomerang) - I’ve had multiple comedians DM me and then say “sorry I meant to reply to the comment!” - beware that adding comments to those videos at the top are actually DMs - almost every video cuts off 1 second early - almost every video has been cropped to fit the aesthetics of my tall screen so I can’t even read the
- prmoustache 4y agoIs anyone still using filters on photo nowadays? Apart from the occasionnal black&white all make the pictures crappier anyway.
- aendruk 4y agoMore speculation—Pixelfed’s new app icon is an imitation of Instagram’s: https://mstdn.social/@cyhwuhx/109597713552140253 https://mstdn.social/@cyhwuhx/109597713552140253
- demarq 4y agoI think Instagram has been super gracious here. I visited their site and it’s literally a 1:1 clone. It’s not in defence of Meta but defence of the open source movement. Projects like this paint open source in the wrong light. An open source photo sharing up would have been cool but 1:1 clones are just unimaginative.
- octoluke 4y agoAnyone else not enjoy mastodons UI? Sidebar is a waste of space
- pferde 4y agoYep, the basic web UI is a bit weird. However, if you go into preferences and enable the "Advanced web interface" option, it turns into a cool, Tweetdeck-like interface with customizable columns. The basic UI always surprises me whenever I open a new mastodon account, and then I always forget about it. :)
- pferde 4y agoPixelfed will be changing the filter names: https://mastodon.social/@dansup/109605006708970886 https://mastodon.social/@dansup/109605006708970886