Not to diminish this problem, but do the people upvoting this realize how pwned they are by these journalists? The journalists know (1) HN is a giant pipe of page views, and (2) any story they write with new revelations about some misdeed by Curebit will be reflexively upvoted by enough users to rise high on the frontpage. And so they write said story, people upvote it as predicted, and this fluff is our news for the day.<p>I usually err on the side of not killing stories criticizing startups we'd funded, but if this was about a startup we didn't fund I'd kill it in a second. (Though of course I wouldn't have to, because few would upvote such a story, which means no journalist would bother writing it.) So I'm going to bury it. I'd rather seem like I'm censoring bad news about startups we funded than let Venturebeat fill HN with crap like this.
Hi everyone,<p>One of the curebit cofounders here. We spoke with the artist as soon as we got his message and began discussion to get the music licensed on Sunday. (Its possible Jolie O'Dell had some stale news as it was posted monday).<p>As of an hour ago, we have come to an agreement on acceptable licensing terms with Random Rab for the music we used, and an apology.<p><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/randomrab/status/164070854433570817" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/#!/randomrab/status/164070854433570817</a><p>We've been combing through our assets and code to make sure we have all the appropriate licenses (and obtaining/replacing) for any assets we do not. It may take some time to get through everything, but this is our first priority.<p>Meanwhile, if you'd like to bring anything to our attention, please let us know at support@curebit.com. We'll act on it promptly.
This is a tough situation for Curebit. People are now looking for a pattern of behavior, and unfortunately for them, they're finding it. The company hasn't been given the opportunity to change their behavior. Should they? If you find a spouse cheating, should a history and pattern of dishonesty be ignored because they say "I didn't know it was wrong"?<p>I think the lesson here is to behave with the same integrity and respect for other people's work before funding as you would when you're a big and successful company.
So during the SOPA protests the HN comment threads had a lot of people stating that copyright should be abolished, or that IP theft is a market failure, torrenting should be legal, etc, etc, etc...<p>I'm guessing those people are also against Curebit doing what it's done? Is there a rallying cry of "HTML is easy to steal and therefore it's a market problem and not Curebit's fault since it is so easy"?<p>I'm not saying it's a 100% parallel, but you see can see it. One one hand we have "IP theft is ok" and on the other "IP thieves! Get them!"<p>I know the difference is Curebit's potential profit motivations vs. "I'm a movie collector who wouldn't have bought these overpriced DVDs", but the irony is still present given the close timing between the two events.
One advantage that YC-funded startups have over everyone else starting businesses on the side is the coverage. Lots of eyeballs to admire and try out your work, give feedback, etc, without having to spam your twitter feed or beg family to try out your prototype yet again.<p>The flipside of starting a business under the limelight is the tabloid-like press that you get, which seems to intensify if you're YC, because a lot of people with seriously great hacker cred have basically personally endorsed your company and its people.<p>This is a good thing; it gives folks the chance to be a business on a hill and display exemplary ethical practices.<p>It is <i>not okay</i> for any business entity to break copyright law, and if one has found themselves to be in error (people make mistakes) then one must immediately remedy the situation. This applies to all businesses, and YC companies happen to be under the microscope.<p>So take advantage of the enviable perks of having press and use the limelight as an opportunity to show stellar maturity and ethical behavior!
For those of you who think people are piling on, understand that things could be much worse. They are company operating USA where copyright infringement is illegal, punishable by a fine and/or jail time. They can also be sued in court and cost the investors
thousands on dollars. An internet mob lashing is not their biggest problem, a lack of integrity is.
Could be a rough couple weeks for Curebit. Clearly the Internets is going to go through all their work with a fine tooth comb. I doubt any company could be 100% sure they haven't used non-licensed materials.<p>That said, Curebit seems to have a bit of a problem on their hands. Smoke, meet fire...
Curebit's demo video was created in 2010 so it's not as if they went about using the music illegally after the previous incident. Random Rab tweeted the founder of Curebit yesterday, he deserves some time. This seems like a hatred campaign...
I'm not trying to excuse this but I don't believe Curebit are the only startup to have ever done something similar. As benjlang said it seems a bit more like directed hatred.
Quite a few people expressed confusion around the strength of emotion with which people were reacting.<p>One part of the answer is that the software company and the artist that Curebit stole from are <i>both</i> darlings with strong fandoms.<p>I know I wouldn't have cared if they'd stolen from Oracle Corporation and The Jonas Brothers.
Oh, common. This is getting ridiculous now. This is just some random people jumping on a free PR wagon while it rolls. It's neither interesting nor it's news. Flagged.<p>(edit) Feel free to downvote, but do tell me - do you really think this belongs to the front page of HN? And do you not think this looks even a little bit like a group bashing now?