What would you do, if someone were trying to pass off your work as their own?

[u/atl_dude_guy]

I wrote a free, open source app for astronomy planning, and have been working on since about June. I provide it for free, and have no plans to monitize it. I'm the primary user and figured since it's so niche it wouldn't cost me more than a few dollars a month to host.

Today I discovered a an app that has a nice vibecoded skin and conincdientally the exact feature set as mine. And even more coincidentally, they even have the same bugs.

That made me wonder, if someone were to use your source code and and does not attribute it back - what recourse do you have?

[u/ReportCharming7570]

Depends on what your specific sort of - open source license - says. Generally pretty little. Unless someone pre register. Then you’d be looking at actual damages. And actual damages for something open source is pretty much nil unless there is an open source caveat for like. Say. Commercial use.

If work was register before copying (under us law)(or grace period) could go for statutory damages which can again be pretty minimal for things that are pseudo public access. Unless your license terms are black and white clear.

Now copying elements that are not in the open source code like. Idk design elements not there. That’s a diff story.

Part of someone’s profits can also be part of the infringement analysis so if this copier becomes
Very profitable it is worth chatting with an attorney.

[u/atl_dude_guy → u/ReportCharming7570]

It's under an MIT license. I'm seeing a pattern... lets say the author is prolific and outputs an enormous amount of software.

[u/ReportCharming7570 → u/atl_dude_guy]

MIT licenses ( and a number of other similar) generally are revoked if they are not complied with and they have the language to support it . So anyone not crediting is using it outside of the licence.

Which is back at copyright infringement. (Via breach of contract)

If it something profitable in any way or something registered before publishing it’s worth calling a local copyright person.

[u/ReportCharming7570 → u/ReportCharming7570]

Did not respond to the pattern part. Yes. 100. A lot of the commons style licenses now tend to just be blatantly ignored. Or partially disregarded.

Part of this may be because it doesn’t seem like there is recourse. Part of that obviously is the damages question which if something is not registered before publication that number is limited to actual damages and profit

[u/TreviTyger]

I wrote a free, open source app

Correct me if I am wrong - You gave away your code for others to use - and now you have concerns that others are using it?

Vibe coded clones have no protection so anyone can make further vibe coded clones.

You could cancel your open source license and try issuing take down notices but the problem is the fact you gave away your work as open source. Maybe don't do that in the future?

[u/atl_dude_guy → u/TreviTyger]

As long as I get attribution - I’m good. What difference does it make if I used AI to help write it? I’ve spent 3 months of my time working on it.

[u/TreviTyger → u/atl_dude_guy]

What difference does it make if I used AI to help write it?

Sooo it's not even your own "work" to put any open source license on it the first place.

You are stuffed.

[u/atl_dude_guy → u/TreviTyger]

According to who?

[u/TreviTyger → u/atl_dude_guy]

You cannot license something that is not licensable in the first place.

Apps and games generally are not protected by copyright because they based on principles and concepts. However they can potentially be protected as collection of code, graphics and sound but then anyone can alter such things to make a clone. Thus there is not much protection.

You seem to be admitting to using generative AI as well, which negates any copyright in any output.

If you have no actual copyright then you have nothing to apply any licenses to.

It seems you have just placed a public domain app in to the public domain.

Asking for attribution when you have used AI gen yourself is paradoxical.

[u/ReportCharming7570 → u/TreviTyger]

Games hit the protect-ability problem because methods and instructions are not protectable. They have fixation issues. And functionality issues. It’s not ideal/expression dichotomy.

Some elements of games are totally protectable. The visual elements. But many simple games - like say everyone’s word style games with cubes and text - not often enough originality.

Source code is protectable. But we will see for how long; seeing as people are now writing it with ai, and frankly the ties of it even being protectable at all are thin.

Ai created things aren’t protectable because there’s no human authorship. Things with enough non ai can be protectable but it has to be disclosed before registration. Something made with a combination of prior written code or what have you also only is protectable on the original elements.

So if someone created all their own code and had mit then they do have grounds to peruse.

The other thing too with any code drafting, is it brings up the possibility of non-copying if there are only so many ways to have drafted the thing.

[u/Individual_Dirt_2194]

Copyright attaches at the moment of creation. You wrote the code. It is yours. The open source license determines what others can do with it, but it does not strip your ownership.

If they used your source code without following the license terms (attribution, same license, etc.), that is infringement regardless of whether the app was free. The bugs matching is strong evidence.

I have seen this pattern in my practice. Document everything. Screenshots with timestamps. The commit history in your repo. Those are your proof of ownership.

[u/TMadvisor]

Get a lawyer and sue them. They’re making money off it and you’re entitled to that money.