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Terry Godier has just published a so-called "Mea Culpa" blaming Claude for cloning the open source app and denying foreknowledge. There's no mention of or apol

by lapcat 2mo ago

Terry Godier has just published a so-called "Mea Culpa" blaming Claude for cloning the open source app and denying foreknowledge. There's no mention of or apology for how Godier deceived Gruber and the world about the astronomy/astrology App Store submission/rejection. https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/08/09/mea-culpa-dark-hours.html https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/08/09/mea-culpa-dark-hours...

robertjpayne 2mo ago
His word is worthless. Especially given that Gruber gave him a draft of the publication and he didn't feel the need to correct any details. Perhaps Claude did just find the repo and reproduce it without any prompt, but also the name? Yea hmm, like 99% sure Claude would've mentioned where the majority of the project came from.
- zbentley 2mo ago
  > like 99% sure Claude would've mentioned where the majority of the project came from. I doubt that. I’ve seen it produce thousands of lines of code or text with like a 2% string distance from something available online and not attribute it. Multiple times.
gilrain 2mo ago
Anyone who trusts Terry Godier after this is a fool.
- timpera 2mo ago
  Why? His other app is extremely good, and his mea culpa seems fine.
  - fasola 2mo ago
    The mea culpa covers the (accidental?) app copying part, but doesn’t cover the lying to Gruber part, which seems worse.
thraway3837 2mo ago
I suspected this was the case from the very beginning. Some years ago, there was another developer who cried foul and the tech press picked up and ran the story that he was unfairly kicked off the App Store. His entire developer account kicked and banned. Developers and the press were equally outraged. Yet another reason that App Store was bad. Or so we all thought. Turns out, after all the bad press for Apple, and with multiple instances where Apple helped to resolve his issue, he quietly admitted online (after weeks of controversy) that he shared his developer account with a relative who was making scam apps and doing bad stuff. It escalated all the way to the top and Phil Schiller at Apple personally looked at the matter and confirmed that his account was indeed committing scams and bad stuff. Bogdan Popescu. For this fake and manufactured controversy, turns out that Terry Godier is a liar and a thief.
- lapcat 2mo ago
  > he quietly admitted online How does one "quietly" admit online? > he shared his developer account with a relative who was making scam apps and doing bad stuff. > his account was indeed committing scams and bad stuff. This is incorrect. The story was actually covered by Daring Fireball https://daringfireball.net/2016/10/apple_dash_controversy https://daringfireball.net/2016/10/apple_dash_controversy and well as by Michael Tsai https://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/10/10/apple-and-kapeli-respond/ https://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/10/10/apple-and-kapeli-respond/ and others. Popescu said, "3-4 years ago I helped a relative get started by paying for her Apple’s Developer Program Membership using my credit card. I also handed her test hardware that I no longer needed. From then on those accounts were linked in the eyes of Apple. Once that account was involved with review manipulation, my account was closed." Popescu also published a recording of a phone call with Apple (which by the way completely destroys your narrative of "quietly admitted online") that proved, among other things, that Apple did not consider Popescu himself to be a scammer. Moreover, Apple later allowed the removed app to return to the App Store: https://blog.kapeli.com/dash-for-ios-back-on-the-app-store https://blog.kapeli.com/dash-for-ios-back-on-the-app-store Gruber himself said in a footnote, "If, as Popescu claims the two accounts were run by two different developers, it would explain the extreme discrepancy in quality. The account that committed review fraud was publishing dozens of, well, rather junky looking apps of dubious utility. The other account only published two apps: Dash for Mac and Dash iOS, both of which are of outstanding quality and utility." As far as I'm aware, Popescu never lied, whereas Godier clearly did.

by lapcat 2mo ago

robertjpayne 2mo ago

His word is worthless. Especially given that Gruber gave him a draft of the publication and he didn't feel the need to correct any details. Perhaps Claude did just find the repo and reproduce it without any prompt, but also the name? Yea hmm, like 99% sure Claude would've mentioned where the majority of the project came from.

zbentley 2mo ago
> like 99% sure Claude would've mentioned where the majority of the project came from. I doubt that. I’ve seen it produce thousands of lines of code or text with like a 2% string distance from something available online and not attribute it. Multiple times.

gilrain 2mo ago

Anyone who trusts Terry Godier after this is a fool.

timpera 2mo ago
Why? His other app is extremely good, and his mea culpa seems fine.
- fasola 2mo ago
  The mea culpa covers the (accidental?) app copying part, but doesn’t cover the lying to Gruber part, which seems worse.

thraway3837 2mo ago

I suspected this was the case from the very beginning. Some years ago, there was another developer who cried foul and the tech press picked up and ran the story that he was unfairly kicked off the App Store. His entire developer account kicked and banned. Developers and the press were equally outraged. Yet another reason that App Store was bad. Or so we all thought. Turns out, after all the bad press for Apple, and with multiple instances where Apple helped to resolve his issue, he quietly admitted online (after weeks of controversy) that he shared his developer account with a relative who was making scam apps and doing bad stuff. It escalated all the way to the top and Phil Schiller at Apple personally looked at the matter and confirmed that his account was indeed committing scams and bad stuff. Bogdan Popescu. For this fake and manufactured controversy, turns out that Terry Godier is a liar and a thief.

lapcat 2mo ago
> he quietly admitted online How does one "quietly" admit online? > he shared his developer account with a relative who was making scam apps and doing bad stuff. > his account was indeed committing scams and bad stuff. This is incorrect. The story was actually covered by Daring Fireball https://daringfireball.net/2016/10/apple_dash_controversy https://daringfireball.net/2016/10/apple_dash_controversy and well as by Michael Tsai https://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/10/10/apple-and-kapeli-respond/ https://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/10/10/apple-and-kapeli-respond/ and others. Popescu said, "3-4 years ago I helped a relative get started by paying for her Apple’s Developer Program Membership using my credit card. I also handed her test hardware that I no longer needed. From then on those accounts were linked in the eyes of Apple. Once that account was involved with review manipulation, my account was closed." Popescu also published a recording of a phone call with Apple (which by the way completely destroys your narrative of "quietly admitted online") that proved, among other things, that Apple did not consider Popescu himself to be a scammer. Moreover, Apple later allowed the removed app to return to the App Store: https://blog.kapeli.com/dash-for-ios-back-on-the-app-store https://blog.kapeli.com/dash-for-ios-back-on-the-app-store Gruber himself said in a footnote, "If, as Popescu claims the two accounts were run by two different developers, it would explain the extreme discrepancy in quality. The account that committed review fraud was publishing dozens of, well, rather junky looking apps of dubious utility. The other account only published two apps: Dash for Mac and Dash iOS, both of which are of outstanding quality and utility." As far as I'm aware, Popescu never lied, whereas Godier clearly did.