6 ms·

I thought we'd already concluded that copyright infringement is not stealing. Neither is linking. Fair use is fine. And that ideas can't be stolen. So, is Cu

• betageek 15y ago
  Agreed, it also seems a massive over reaction to what is, after all, a very small startup committing a victimless crime. Naming and shaming should be enough without dragging them through the streets of the web for a public stoning.
  • gizmo 15y ago
    They are (a) copying other people's work, (b) passing it off as their own, (c) doing so for profit, and (d) unable to see why this is wrong. This isn't a gray area at all.
    • jasonlotito 15y ago
      An honest question (and thank you for not using the term stealing!=)), but you listed 4 reasons. Just curious about where it crosses the line for you. If someone does A, is it still a grey area? Is it because of B? C? D? Personally, I see it as A. B, C, and D merely exasperate the situation, but without A, B, C, and D aren't an issue. Of course, the follow up is if it's because of B, C, and D that it isn't in a grey area?
      • eropple 15y ago
        You don't think hotlinking images and CSS is stealing bandwidth?
        • vacri 15y ago
          I'm sure all those 300-byte images have the 37signals servers at melting point. I don't think this is the horse you want to ride.
          • pbhjpbhj 15y ago
            I'll take that pony ride. Someone who's happy to steal from someone else just because that person is richer than them and they're only stealing little things still, IMO, lacks morally. With proviso's which aren't I don't think pertinent to this current situation (eg immediate life-preservation). Your argument is basically the shoplifter's manifesto - the store is rich, I only took some of their stuff, it's barely a drop compared to their profits, etc..
            • vacri 15y ago
              No, my argument is that of all the things wrong with this situation, stealing 300-byte bandwidth is so far down the list it's unimportant. That's what I meant by this is not the horse - there are far better horses to ride in this race. It's nice of you to tell me what my argument is, but you have it utterly wrong.
              • pbhjpbhj 15y ago
                >nice of you to tell me what my argument is How you've reiterated it here appears to match my interpretation of what you said. So perhaps you can say what your argument actually is - FWIW my comment had several upvotes so it doesn't appear to be just me being a dullard. >stealing 300-byte bandwidth is so far down the list it's unimportant So you're saying this is nothing like the argument 'stealing a snickers from Walmart is such a small amount, it's not important'?
                • 15y ago
      • veyron 15y ago
        It's only vague inasfar as the words themselves are vague. "COPYING" is abused. RIAA and other organizations have really tried to grossly expand the definition and that has tainted the discussion. For the next paragraph, "COPYING" means literally using the same assets (or a digital replication). The line is drawn at "literally copying assets". Putting up your own assets that are inspired by another site isn't copying. Putting up another company's assets (or downloading and self-hosting other company assets) crosses the line.
        • jaekwon 15y ago
          I don't think you can define "copying" clearly for this purpose. Is it still copying if a person is wedged in the replication loop? I think you're going to try to divide my hypothetical into two scenarios, and it's not going to be clear cut what the distinction is.
      • gizmo 15y ago
        They're not in increasing badness. I don't think copying other people's work (a) is particularly wrong, unless you do so for profit (c). Otherwise it falls under the banner of "fair use". Taking credit for other people's work (b), even in a not-for-profit context is something I consider wrong. In combination with (c) only more-so. I think (d) is also a real issue, because it signals a certain sense of oblivious righteousness. It's an attitude that, regardless of the specifics of the situation, I consider really harmful. When people criticize one's actions -- whatever the reason may be -- you got to take a step back and reflect for a moment. Try to understand the other point of view. Failing to do so is, I think, a moral failure.
        • jasonlotito 15y ago
          Thanks for the answer. I didn't mean to imply they had increasing badness, it just happened to work out that way. I find it interesting that copying others people's work is okay with you as long as you credit them and don't do so for profit. I'm guessing it's mainly a "You know it when you see it"-porn kind of thing. I agree with your point on D, especially as it relates to this. I think the community would be somewhat more forgiving if they'd just come right out and said "We fked up!" 37Signals did this a couple weeks ago with the cat.jpg incident.
          • gizmo 15y ago
            > I didn't mean to imply they had increasing badness, it just happened to work out that way. Ahh, ok. My bad. My moral intuition with regard to copyright probably isn't entirely consistent. For instance, if a poor kid wants to learn but the parents can't afford books, is it OK for him to pirate those books (either with a photocopier or digitally)? I think it is okay, and it's definitely in the best interest of society. After that it's just a slippery slope towards a very free interpretation of "fair use", regarding music, art and so on. As for D, society punishes people harshly mostly for being unstrategic. After all, they should just do a "We fked up!" post regardless of their beliefs, because it's obviously the strategic thing to do. They didn't do that right away, so they are effectively punished for their poor strategy, not for their moral judgement. Even a transparently disingenuous apology is (erroneously) judged (by the public) as an apology of sorts, even though it only means that the company in question did a cost-benefit analysis. Effectively we're browbeating companies into giving the sort of apology we want to see, regardless of what they believe they did was wrong. That's sort of messed up, when you think about it.
    • jaekwon 15y ago
      It's only gray from your system. There are other systems that people live (and think) in, regardless of what the law (and "common sense") says. If you consider that (a) the act of ctrl-c/ctrl-v is fine for any material, (b) hosting content on your domain does not imply that you pass off the inspiration of the work as your own, (c) everybody already copies under the radar for profit to some extent, then (d) becomes an issue of perspective, like I said. If you accept that copyright law may be morally or economically inferior to other systems, this should be gray to you. If you accept that you want to copy your peers' works for your own profit, and you can accept that your peers have the same rights to your productions, then you are a Kopimi, and there's nothing wrong with that either from what I can tell, (except that society will burn you down in today's day & age. Think of it as a modern day witch hunt.)
      • gizmo 15y ago
        I meant that it isn't a gray area, that it isn't a moral dilemma for me, but something that is overwhelmingly slanted one way. I don't consider it a moral absolute, and it's easy to imagine a society superior to ours where copying is considered OK. I think this is completely different from the Kopimi philosophy, which argues that the rights of others to enjoy existing work (e.g. music, movies, art) outweigh the right of the IP holder to deny others the right to enjoy the work in question. As for (b) I think that when you put something on your site you're implicitly claiming the work is your own, and it's your responsibility to give credit where due. They didn't. Your argument against (c) - everybody else does it -, I find completely unpersuasive.
        • jaekwon 15y ago
          I see what I said as corollary, rather than representing Kopimi. What you say about (b) only follows from current social norms, which can change and I believe will change over time. I understand what you mean about attribution, but it is also difficult to give attribution to certain copyrighted works in today's climate without admitting "guilt". As per (c), have you ever run Firebug against Facebook's site to see how they do things? If you haven't, you're missing out. :)
    • scorpion032 15y ago
      Yes. It was wrong. No one is defending that. Breaking a traffic signal is wrong and killing someone is wrong. The point I think the op is making is that, people have been way too rude for the level of the mistake they have done. They are already insulted and name called. Why take it further in the blogs, newspapers and so on.
      • ams6110 15y ago
        Well they not only ripped off someone else's work, they picked the work of one of the most fiery, well-known personalities in the web business world (DHH). When you mess with the bull, you get the horns.
  • stickfigure 15y ago
    I don't know if there's more context to the quotes in the article, but DHH comes off as an annoying dick. My startup uses CSS we bought off of themeforest.net.[1] Using it certainly doesn't require more design skill than copying 37signals. Is it original? I really don't give a damn, and neither do my customers. [1] ...and subsequently had to reimplement nearly from scratch, because people with great design sense seem to be incapable of creating solid, structured CSS. Thank zeus for Twitter Bootstrap.[2] [2] Even less original than "stealing" someone else's design.
    • getsat 15y ago
      > we bought There's the difference. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523402 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523402
• jvandenbroeck 15y ago
  Imo it's also because it's no style; copying source code, linking to resources from another site, copying logo's,.. It's like going to an English gentlemen's tea party clothed like a beggar & shitting all over the place. And then replying on twitter "why do you care i shitted all over the place? what's the big deal?"
• nl 15y ago
  Who concluded that copyright infringement is not stealing? Opposition to SOPA etc does not necessarily mean people don't believe in copyright. There is a very broad range of views on that particular question.
  • jasonlotito 15y ago
    > Who concluded that copyright infringement is not stealing? You've got that question backwards. Whose concluded that copyright infringement is stealing? > Opposition to SOPA etc does not necessarily mean people don't believe in copyright. That has absolutely nothing to do with what I said. You clearly don't understand what I'm saying. I oppose SOPA and absolutely support copyright. And that doesn't contradict anything I've said. > There is a very broad range of views on that particular question. Broad range? I figure there are 2 views: those that want frame copyright infringement as stealing, and those that understand the difference.
    • nl 15y ago
      Whose (sic) concluded that copyright infringement is stealing That's the facts under the law as it stands at the moment. I figure there are 2 views There is a broard range of opinions ranging from a major criminal offence, to a minor offence to a non-criminal civil offence to not wrong at all to a duty of all people.
• jaekwon 15y ago
  Let's be rational. Lets say that it is instantaneous and free to copy 37Signal's design, whereas to recreate it from scratch it costs the labor of a designer X units of dollar-time. For the sake of simplicity lets say that Curebit and 37Signals are competing for customers in a zero sum game. True, by copying 37Signals, Curebit has taken away some unknown X dollar-time worth of customers away from 37Signals during that 1 hour. However, even though the customer space of 37Signal's and Curebit's enterprise may be zero-sum, the dollar-time measure of work is non-negative (and not zero-sum). It would make more sense for the industry as a whole to allow the copying of design, because overall it saves on design work time. What Curebit did appears to be wrong because it appears as though they are outright cheating. However, if you understand that designers gain their chops by reverse-engineering the productions of others, and that this happens routinely in the real world, perhaps it's time to accept copying as a legitimate part of the equation. In this case, 37Signals was given free rein to track Curebit's customers. Sounds like a good deal to me.
  • jtheory 15y ago
    To understand the reasons why many people who will argue strongly for fair use, etc., still find this wrong, you have to look two steps ahead. Let's say 37 signals has done the extensive work to create a page design that really converts. And we live in the world where anyone else who wants to lift their carefully-researched design can do so in 10 minutes, and reap the same benefits. Unfortunately, that would put 37 signals at a serious disadvantage -- assuming that customers don't know who first created something really good, the actual creator always loses. All of the copycats get the same benefit with a cost of 10 minutes vs. 10 days. So the only way 37 signals can benefit from their work is to find a way to make it more work to copy than to recreate. To do that, they'd need, what -- some kind of heavily-obfuscated Flash? I'm sure if the need were there, we'd find a way to really lock down web UIs. > In this case, 37Signals was given free rein to track Curebit's customers. Sounds like a good deal to me. Unrelated to my points above, but never mind tracking... a hotlinked image is the perfect invitation to tweak your own layout, then change the original image files. Sadly, it looks like 37 signals missed their opportunity to paper over Curebit's page with animated penises.
    • 15y ago
• clark-kent 15y ago
  What Curebit did was more like, taking the new Mission Impossible movie by Paramount Pictures, renaming it and changing the credits. Then releasing it as their original production.
• philwelch 15y ago
  There's copyright infringement for personal reasons (i.e. I really wanted to watch that movie) and there's commercial plagiarism. It's a completely false equivalency.