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What technologies did you use? XMPP? Node? ... I don't think your are infringing any copyright as long as you are not making profit from it. Reverse Engineering

by joeyspn 11y ago

What technologies did you use? XMPP? Node? ... I don't think your are infringing any copyright as long as you are not making profit from it. Reverse Engineering is legal, specially when done with the aim of interoperability... and what you are seeking is an interoperable server right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#Legality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#Legality

sysk 11y ago
Ah, interesting question. I had never implemented a chat server before and initially read the IRC/XMPP specifications but Slack felt like a "superset" of both (federation/p2p wasn't a priority for me) and I was more familiar with web protocols. The stack is Node.js and PostgreSQL (I probably reinvented some kind of message queue). There is a "dumb" websocket server that just receives/sends events from/to the backend server. Both the websocket and backend servers can scale horizontally. I haven't written any XMPP/IRC gateways for now though I suppose it wouldn't be that difficult to do.
- onyxraven 11y ago
  Fun. From everything noted about Slack, thats all they've got as their 'core' as well (PHP/MySQL I think, with maybe nodejs websockets).
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/500007057937145856 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/500007057937145856 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/521894442064560128 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/521894442064560128 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/458391373994270720 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/458391373994270720
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
ohitsdom 11y ago
Profitability has nothing to do with determining copyright infringement. For example, if I made a soda called Coke+ and gave it away for free, I'd still be infringing.
- tracker1 11y ago
  That's not copyright infringement it's trademark infringement... In this case if the author were to prominently mention Slack, then they might also be afowl of trademark. Beyond that, there's still some gray area, legally speaking, with concern to the API interfaces themselves being either patentable or copyright... not even just the documentation of.

by joeyspn 11y ago

sysk 11y ago

Ah, interesting question. I had never implemented a chat server before and initially read the IRC/XMPP specifications but Slack felt like a "superset" of both (federation/p2p wasn't a priority for me) and I was more familiar with web protocols. The stack is Node.js and PostgreSQL (I probably reinvented some kind of message queue). There is a "dumb" websocket server that just receives/sends events from/to the backend server. Both the websocket and backend servers can scale horizontally. I haven't written any XMPP/IRC gateways for now though I suppose it wouldn't be that difficult to do.

onyxraven 11y ago
Fun. From everything noted about Slack, thats all they've got as their 'core' as well (PHP/MySQL I think, with maybe nodejs websockets).
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/500007057937145856 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/500007057937145856 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/521894442064560128 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/521894442064560128 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/458391373994270720 https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/458391373994270720

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

ohitsdom 11y ago

Profitability has nothing to do with determining copyright infringement. For example, if I made a soda called Coke+ and gave it away for free, I'd still be infringing.

tracker1 11y ago
That's not copyright infringement it's trademark infringement... In this case if the author were to prominently mention Slack, then they might also be afowl of trademark. Beyond that, there's still some gray area, legally speaking, with concern to the API interfaces themselves being either patentable or copyright... not even just the documentation of.