Defending your app from copies and clones

Re:Defending your app from copies and clones by huebnerob on Friday February 23, 2018 @02:38PM (#16448738)

Originating a widely-used open-source technology is a huge liability with virtually no financial benefit. It's a goal an engineer fetishizes and a product creator recoils at. I can't pay my rent with a pat-on-the-back buried in some acknowledgements screen, but hooray for my competitors being able to copy my product in a tenth of the time and effort.

Also, if everything were open-source, then nothing would get brownie points just for being open-source.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Defending your app from copies and clones by SAI_Peregrinus on Friday February 23, 2018 @03:22PM (#16449209)

That's where copyleft (GPL-style) is better than BSD-style. Competitors can copy your product, but you can copy back. You presumably have some first-mover advantage in an existing userbase, so you can improve your product and retain those users + gain more. If you went with a BSD license and the competitor stayed closed you'd be up the creek.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Defending your app from copies and clones by criddell on Friday February 23, 2018 @05:26PM (#16450168)

That's how it's supposed to work, but what are you going to do when a start up on the other side of the planet takes your GPL code to build something great but doesn't share their changes?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Defending your app from copies and clones by vtange on Friday February 23, 2018 @02:48PM (#16448822)

But if everything were open-source, anything new that's closed-source would get negative-brownie points cause it's not free.

That's the thing about open-source though, it's a race to the bottom for market share. We saw it with React and Vue.

I also get that open-source is a maintenance liability with issue and requests, but I also see plenty of open-source software that do well "provided as-is".

[ Parent | on HN ]