3 ms·

You need to publish it under a less permissive license (or make your own). Either way, if you really want to stop it, it will cost money through lawyer fees.

hmcq6 3y ago
A good first question would be, is the code nontrivial enough to even be copyrightable? If your app is 95% boiler plate and lets say 5% bespoke code that reads an image from the webcam an inverts the colors then your code isn't eligible for copyright protection. Or maybe I'm thinking of patents. My point is, legally they probably cant just copy paste your code but if the code is sufficiently basic you won't be able to prove that they copied it (and basic ideas are fundamentally not copyrightable/patentable. one of those two.) "A website is not explicitly recognized as a type of copyrightable subject matter under the Copyright Act. Therefore, you should not list “website” as the type of authorship that you will submit with your copyright application. You, may, however, be able to register a website or a specific web page if it satisfies the statutory requirements for a compilation or collective work. You can register a website as a compilation or a collective work if there is a sufficient amount of creative expression in the selection, coordination, or arrangement of the content appearing on the individual web pages or the website as a whole. Likewise, a website may qualify as a compilation or a collective work if there is sufficient creativity in the overall hierarchy of the website, such as the ways in which the pages are connected or linked with one another." https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ66.pdf https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ66.pdf
mdklgmdfk2 3y ago
Thanks. I'll consider that. Maybe a "this code will automatically become open source in one year" type license. I'll keep adding features until I come up with a good solution.

hmcq6 3y ago

A good first question would be, is the code nontrivial enough to even be copyrightable? If your app is 95% boiler plate and lets say 5% bespoke code that reads an image from the webcam an inverts the colors then your code isn't eligible for copyright protection. Or maybe I'm thinking of patents. My point is, legally they probably cant just copy paste your code but if the code is sufficiently basic you won't be able to prove that they copied it (and basic ideas are fundamentally not copyrightable/patentable. one of those two.) "A website is not explicitly recognized as a type of copyrightable subject matter under the Copyright Act. Therefore, you should not list “website” as the type of authorship that you will submit with your copyright application. You, may, however, be able to register a website or a specific web page if it satisfies the statutory requirements for a compilation or collective work. You can register a website as a compilation or a collective work if there is a sufficient amount of creative expression in the selection, coordination, or arrangement of the content appearing on the individual web pages or the website as a whole. Likewise, a website may qualify as a compilation or a collective work if there is sufficient creativity in the overall hierarchy of the website, such as the ways in which the pages are connected or linked with one another." https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ66.pdf https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ66.pdf

mdklgmdfk2 3y ago

Thanks. I'll consider that. Maybe a "this code will automatically become open source in one year" type license. I'll keep adding features until I come up with a good solution.