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Ask HN: Parrot language copycat my Gravity source code. What can I do?

6 pointsby marcobambiniover 3 years ago
I found out that the Parrot programming language (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;parrot-language&#x2F;parrot) did copycat line by line my Gravity programming language (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;marcobambini&#x2F;gravity).<p>I know that I used a very permissive license and that the project can be forked and modified by anyone but this is a theft more than a fork.<p>What can I do in this situation?

7 comments

meatBoyover 3 years ago
to be fair, he started the language days ago and by the time, he already made some &quot;big&quot; improvments to the original programming language. I have seen he have added&#x2F;cahanged the MIT License with copyright notice. Since he has already added a notice, what I suggest is to just see how he is going and maybe give him some help.
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Snetryover 3 years ago
Don&#x27;t jump the gun and open up a conversation on how this happened first.<p>After that mention that the attribution as required by the MIT License is missing
WalterGRover 3 years ago
It&#x27;s not theft. The MIT license, which your project is released under, allows exactly what they did.<p>The MIT license does require attribution, but doesn&#x27;t dictate where that attribution appears. Have you checked their repo for attribution?<p>(Edit: It&#x27;s humorous that the other project is named Parrot, since Parrots are known for copying sounds, and in fact the verb &quot;parrot&quot; means &quot;to imitate.&quot;)
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el_dev_hellover 3 years ago
&gt; I know that I used a very permissive license and that the project can be forked and modified by anyone but this is a theft more than a fork.<p>You used probably the most permissive license available (MIT). However, it does look like Parrot is not attributing Gravity anywhere in their repo (which is the only requirement of MIT).<p>If I was in your situation, I&#x27;d open a pull request with an attribution in the README.
ModernMechover 3 years ago
Congratulations! This is the highest compliment that could be paid to you and your project, I&#x27;m quite jealous. In all likelihood, this Parrot language will go nowhere. That&#x27;s not saying anything about Parrot, but a fact of life for most languages out there (including Gravity tbf, sorry). My suggestion is to not pay this a second thought and just keep working on your language. Every second you spend on this non-issue is a second you&#x27;re not spending making Gravity language better.
armchairhackerover 3 years ago
Send them an email saying that you support them using your code and you’re glad they were inspired by your project, but please make sure to include attribution as specified by the MIT license.
Mikeb85over 3 years ago
MIT license... You can&#x27;t do anything except ask for attribution.