3 ms·

The alternative would pretty much be an end to startup innovation, since a large company with a team of lawyers could just claim that any new product that threa

The alternative would pretty much be an end to startup innovation, since a large company with a team of lawyers could just claim that any new product that threatens them is a copy in some way and destroy the startup with legal bills regardless of whether there's any merit to the claims. Being copied sucks, and I agree that it should be looked down upon culturally, but I think "just execute better" really is the right answer. It's better for consumers and ultimately better for entrepreneurs too.

jacquesm 3y ago
I've had something like this happen with a bunch of guys cloning my software and changing the URL to offer a competing service. I've also had a funded competitor copy our business model and attempt to compete. I sued the first one, the other one we outcompeted in spite of a 30:1 funding discrepancy. Regardless, these things are distractions and some funded bunch of cowboys destroying the market for you when you've spent a long time to get established can be a real problem. Even if they go under they'll do a lot of damage, not just to you, but also to their customers and possibly the whole field as a consequence of their activities. For instance: to offer the product for free because they're burning investor cash.
- tptacek 3y ago
  Did anything come of the lawsuit?
- danenania 3y ago
  I hear you, but what's the alternative? Are you advocating for software patents? If you're just saying that an API or a website is copyrighted and can't be ripped off verbatim, that sounds more reasonable to me. But still, it's trivial to copy but then make minor cosmetic changes (especially with AI). Then we're back to a very troublesome gray area.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    It all depends on what has been copied. If privileged info from the YC application was used they should be sued into the ground for that but I can't imagine that YC would ever let that happen. If they copied code, text or images from the product or webpages they should be slammed for that too. But if they just decided to clone the concept and did all the legwork themselves that would be a different matter. The fact that they infiltrated the OPs comms channels certainly doesn't make them look good.

jacquesm 3y ago

I've had something like this happen with a bunch of guys cloning my software and changing the URL to offer a competing service. I've also had a funded competitor copy our business model and attempt to compete. I sued the first one, the other one we outcompeted in spite of a 30:1 funding discrepancy. Regardless, these things are distractions and some funded bunch of cowboys destroying the market for you when you've spent a long time to get established can be a real problem. Even if they go under they'll do a lot of damage, not just to you, but also to their customers and possibly the whole field as a consequence of their activities. For instance: to offer the product for free because they're burning investor cash.

tptacek 3y ago
Did anything come of the lawsuit?
danenania 3y ago
I hear you, but what's the alternative? Are you advocating for software patents? If you're just saying that an API or a website is copyrighted and can't be ripped off verbatim, that sounds more reasonable to me. But still, it's trivial to copy but then make minor cosmetic changes (especially with AI). Then we're back to a very troublesome gray area.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  It all depends on what has been copied. If privileged info from the YC application was used they should be sued into the ground for that but I can't imagine that YC would ever let that happen. If they copied code, text or images from the product or webpages they should be slammed for that too. But if they just decided to clone the concept and did all the legwork themselves that would be a different matter. The fact that they infiltrated the OPs comms channels certainly doesn't make them look good.