Theft problem in open source code
Do we keep building code that someone will steal, take credit, and raise money with?
Background: Ycombinator invested in a founder, Daniel Park, who creates “cheating apps” called Glass which was ripped off from a GPLv3 codebase called CheatingDaddy
Post is still going viral as I write this reaching 1.3 million views on X but the founder of Glass’s brazen fake apology has produced even more outrage.
Daniel Park was ridiculed further on HN
The final slap across the face for the creator of CheatingDaddy is that Glass has more attention now as a result of outright theft of it’s codebase.
I note a major uptick in the trend of velocity-first-ethics-last from startup founders. We aren’t new to this (PearAI? BuilderAI?) but Daniel’s particular lack of empathy and apology is striking and I note how young he is (22 and med school drop out).
Code theft destroys open source
The purpose of this article isn’t to crticize the category of “cheating app” first created by Roy Lee who vibe coded (which had hardcoded supabase credentials, showing the limitations of non-technical founders creating software by relying on AI alone) into viral success but the barren incentives for open source contributors who work day and night, often in countries cut off from the excesses of America when it comes to funding, drying up even faster, as nobody is trying to fix this.
No profit offers no moat for contributor
Single critical issue I identified with this code-theft situation is the lack of profits from a liberally licensed project which is the biggest moat against someone stealing it (who has incentive to due to investor funding). If you published copyrighted code instead that would be much harder but probably not enough for characters like Daniel Park. If CheatingDaddy was generating or had a stripe landing page and he decided to steal their code that would be an easy victory.
Damage claims is the only moat
Much like outfits like YC, PE, VCs in general is incentivized to return profits to its partners and investors, the founders are incentivized to generate metrics at even greater length. In the past year alone some AI company founders are facing length prison sentence in the US for their “Move Fast and Break the Law” philosophy.
These weren’t just small YC batches but heavily funded ventures that produce extreme greed to the point of ignoring the law. While misleading investors is fraud and stealing copyrighted IP and profiteering is easily provable and damages can be quantified. In the case of Albert, he faces 40-years in federal prison. Daniel won’t get any time for stealing code from an open source project that generates no reveues.
Github doing jack, time for new platform!
I’m sick of seeing small guys getting ripped off again and again for doing good work on their open source github projects. People like Daniel Park disgust me. I’m turning my rage into something tangible. I’m creating a platform to address the exact issue of code theft and fix the broken power dynamic between those that build and those that exploit.
If you own an open source project owner or contributor and you don’t want people like Daniel Park stealing your work, claiming credit and profiteering what is rightfully yours, please leave a reply or subscribe so I can invite you to a transparent and fair platform that I am launching in the coming months!
Get paid for your contributions to a project
Real legal moat to protect your code against thieves
Build better, safer, ethical software that will last