4 ms·

Face.com closes its API after Facebook purchase

30 points by alsothings 14y ago

ColinWright 14y ago
Related (or identical): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4211021 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4211021 <- Comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4211271 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4211271 <- Comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4212427 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4212427 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4212488 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4212488 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4223137 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4223137
alsothings 14y ago
The interesting point here to me is, is there any obligation for service continuity across an acquisition? Any at all?
- mc32 14y ago
  Moral obligation or legal obligation? Legally they would be bound by whatever terms you and they agreed upon such that they are enforceable. Morally? I dunno, that's trickier, but at inception, one surely can't account for all possible future scenarios (acquisition being one) and build that into people's expectations. I think it's just the nature of business. Even with the best of intentions, a company (site whatever) may not be able to survive (and most people accept that). In the case of failure a mature business can go through bankruptcy proceedings. Still, in most cases, customers are probably the last ones receiving any comp, if any is left. Mostly it goes to creditors and so on.
- asg 14y ago
  I think the linked article answers that question well: the ONLY obligation is to be honest, not dissemble about the truth.
- prodigal_erik 14y ago
  Thou shalt not break working code. This is negligence of an engineer, though it's probably imposed by management (and thus not quite his fault) rather than an accident.
methodin 14y ago
According to the recent rulings you can't copyright APIs, and if that's the case, why have their not been more open source API alternatives to these ventures? I understand money would be an issue so I imagine a non-profit or open source foundation funding servers to house such a venture would also be necessary unless you were to do it yourself.
- SoftwareMaven 14y ago
  The APIs aren't hard, the technology behind the APIs are.
  - AUmrysh 14y ago
    That's the real problem. You can find stuff like libfacerec out there, which OpenCV just added to their latest release (2.4.2) a week or so ago. Maybe we will see more face-recognizing software come from this. http://docs.opencv.org/modules/contrib/doc/facerec/index.html http://docs.opencv.org/modules/contrib/doc/facerec/index.htm...
  - methodin 14y ago
    Sure. It's hard but if you are telling me there isn't enough talent in this world to sustain it given a model to work from then I would really have a hard time believing you.
josscrowcroft 14y ago
Seems like such a perfect opportunity for competitors to step up.

30 points by alsothings 14y ago

Related (or identical): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4211021 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4211021 <- Comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4211271 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4211271 <- Comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4212427 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4212427 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4212488 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4212488 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4223137 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4223137

alsothings 14y ago

The interesting point here to me is, is there any obligation for service continuity across an acquisition? Any at all?

mc32 14y ago
Moral obligation or legal obligation? Legally they would be bound by whatever terms you and they agreed upon such that they are enforceable. Morally? I dunno, that's trickier, but at inception, one surely can't account for all possible future scenarios (acquisition being one) and build that into people's expectations. I think it's just the nature of business. Even with the best of intentions, a company (site whatever) may not be able to survive (and most people accept that). In the case of failure a mature business can go through bankruptcy proceedings. Still, in most cases, customers are probably the last ones receiving any comp, if any is left. Mostly it goes to creditors and so on.
asg 14y ago
I think the linked article answers that question well: the ONLY obligation is to be honest, not dissemble about the truth.
prodigal_erik 14y ago
Thou shalt not break working code. This is negligence of an engineer, though it's probably imposed by management (and thus not quite his fault) rather than an accident.

methodin 14y ago

According to the recent rulings you can't copyright APIs, and if that's the case, why have their not been more open source API alternatives to these ventures? I understand money would be an issue so I imagine a non-profit or open source foundation funding servers to house such a venture would also be necessary unless you were to do it yourself.

SoftwareMaven 14y ago
The APIs aren't hard, the technology behind the APIs are.
- AUmrysh 14y ago
  That's the real problem. You can find stuff like libfacerec out there, which OpenCV just added to their latest release (2.4.2) a week or so ago. Maybe we will see more face-recognizing software come from this. http://docs.opencv.org/modules/contrib/doc/facerec/index.html http://docs.opencv.org/modules/contrib/doc/facerec/index.htm...
- methodin 14y ago
  Sure. It's hard but if you are telling me there isn't enough talent in this world to sustain it given a model to work from then I would really have a hard time believing you.

josscrowcroft 14y ago

Seems like such a perfect opportunity for competitors to step up.