I just got meta-copied

In a country with a billion people, even if you're one in a million, there's still 1000 people just like you.

Something is a bit fishy with that favicon. The version used by the 'rippers' doesn't use transparency, whereas Tian's favicon does have one.<p>That favicon source (there are probably others): <a href="http://www.veryicon.com/icons/system/free-business/copy-4.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.veryicon.com/icons/system/free-business/copy-4.ht...</a>

I feel a bit disappoint that this has got so many votes on HN, when a simple Google image search shows that the icon in question is a simply a freely licensed image produced by FreeIconsWeb that turns up when you search for "copy icon".<p>I'm guessing the author of this article knew that (presumably that's where he got it from) but chose to omit that rather critical point from his post to make it seem more favourable to himself.<p>Link to original image: <a href="http://www.freeiconsweb.com/Icons-show/Freeicons/Copy.png" rel="nofollow">http://www.freeiconsweb.com/Icons-show/Freeicons/Copy.png</a>

Well as far as I know, the 'rippers' claimed by author has existed for a while now. This tweet is posted on Jul. 16 (<a href="http://www.weibo.com/1655212723/l4EWMiVcl" rel="nofollow">http://www.weibo.com/1655212723/l4EWMiVcl</a> ) while the author's post is posted on Aug. 30. So I would say this is just a coincident rather than a rip-off. And I believe the author should spend a little more time doing some research before accusing the wrong person.

Don't feel too bad, you spent a mere 2.5 hours, and as a result a website that took probably 10 times that effort popped up. You lose the personal gain from the project, but the valued created as a result of 150 minutes of work is very efficient!

Is there a Chinese copy of HN?

Author is actually Tianfang Li. As an entrepreneur he is famous in China. I did not think he would have time to make other projects.

I'd like to see them list each other as copies of themselves.

What's the consensus in protecting yourself from getting copied in China? Launch there first?

I wonder if all these companies are really negatively impacting creativity and inventiveness?

The author hasn't included a link to the "copy factory" website. I'm curious about what that link is, because I have noticed that Chrome will show favicons despite no favicon.ico being equipped on a site. I have seen this mainly has happened on local apps where I know for certain I am not serving one yet one shows up. I would like to check the "copy factory" site to see if they aren't defining one either, and if the author is simply seeing an artifact from his browser.

The webapp seem to be built using Twitter Bootstrap and Heroku. I would have thought Chinese programmers who resort to copying would be using older technology.

haha this is one of the reasons I stick to iOS apps!!