Disingenuousness

Issue #31

I’m very happy to be on open source movement, and it ‘ll be great to hear about what people have achieved

And @merowing_ also mentioned in Writing Xcode plugin in Swift

Attribution

Writing this was much simpler because I was able to look at other people plugins, mostly those related to console, without them being open sourcing it would be more work to figure this stuff out with hopper.

Open source helps us move forward, learn and share together

The dark side of the Force

Luke: Is the dark side stronger?

Yoda: No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.

It’s a pain to see plagiarism around

Open source softwares are in fact intellectual properties, and the authors should get acknowledgement for the work that they do.

It’s not fair to take the credit of other’s work and not giving any attribution

By its nature, open source software has a unique relationship with intellectual property rights

One thing that’s not up for debate in most circles is that it’s dishonest and disingenuous to take someone else’s project, modify it slightly, and call it your own.

Further, regardless of whether or not a project crosses that line, it must (by the terms of most open source licenses) acknowledge the original work/author.

And the reaction

It’s always sad to see blatant plagiarism, and I think it really hurts the community more than the author itself. It gives people a good reason to keep the sources private.

Being nice

I often hear people say that

It is easier to find good developer than developer with good attitude

Github also states that

We understand and agree that copying others’ work without permission goes against the spirit of the open source community

Do the right things

Is it MIT ‘s fault? Definitely no

False choice. Giving up freedom does not lead to more security, just less freedom.

Takeaways

  • Don’t take things personally
  • It’s hard to be perfect, but we can learn to do the right things
  • We may do the wrong things, but don’t worry, there ‘ll be help via Issues and Pull Requests

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