G6EJD Copyright infringement

[G6EJD]

You have copied my code for the FFT and not maintained my copyright clauses as I required.

You even copied the deliberate mistake I introduced to ensure I can prove there is a copyright infringement.

Please add my copyright clauses in or I’ll issue a GitHub take down notice.

Please don’t copy others code and pass them as your own.

[s-marley]

I will add the needed clause asap, I'm sorry I didn't do this correctly in the first place. It will take me a day or two to do so as I'm away from home at the moment. I always believe in giving credit where it is due, and this was an oversight.

However, immediately threatening a takedown notice is a very unfriendly way to approach this. I gave you a shout out in the video commenting on how good your content was and linked to it in the description so people could see for themselves. There is a link to your GitHub at the top of the code itself. There is also credit in the GitHub Readme and a link to your channel. In no way did I claim the code was my own, and took every opportunity to give you credit. People in the maker community should be working together to help each other out, not threatening each other and I'm very disappointed in your approach.

On Wed, 2 Mar 2022, 10:06 G6EJD, @.***> wrote:

You have copied my code for the FFT and not maintained my copyright clauses as I required.

You even copied the deliberate mistake I introduced to ensure I can prove there is a copyright infringement.

Please add my copyright clauses in or I’ll issue a GitHub take down notice.

Please don’t copy others code and pass them as your own.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/s-marley/ESP32_FFT_VU/issues/12, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACSGWSO7LTRWBGJVFU7432LU544TJANCNFSM5PW6QSLQ . Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675 or Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub.

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[s-marley]

@G6EJD Can you clarify something for me? The code I used has the MIT licence at the top. Are you happy if I simply paste this license into my code?

[G6EJD]

This is the licence for my (all) code: https://github.com/G6EJD/ESP32-8-Octave-Audio-Spectrum-Display/blob/master/Licence.txt When you've had as many copyright infringements as I have had you'd feel the same I'm sure. It's not really good enough to say I forgot, this is what everyone says!

[s-marley]

So I should add your licence.txt to this repository? Can I edit the licence file to make it clear that it is just some portions of my code (about 20% by the looks of it) that use your example? Please help me to do this right.

[G6EJD]

The law of copyright is straightforward the moment someone (me) writes anything down the copyright of any portion of it is with the creator. So in this case you need to include all of the licence even though as you think just a small portion of the code is included, for example if you remove my code your code portions won't function. This software, the ideas and concepts is Copyright (c) David Bird 2014 and beyond.

All rights to this software are reserved. It is prohibited to redistribute or reproduce of any part or all of the software contents in any form other than the following:

1. You may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only.
2. You may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the author David Bird as the source of the material.
3. You may not, except with my express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content.
4. You may not transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system for commercial purposes. 5. You MUST include all of this copyright and permission notice ('as annotated') and this shall be included in all copies or substantial or minor portions of the software and where the software use is visible to an end-user.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" FOR PRIVATE USE ONLY, IT IS NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE IN WHOLE OR PART OR CONCEPT.

FOR PERSONAL USE IT IS SUPPLIED WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

[s-marley]

Ok, that's all done. Hopefully it's good enough. When I'm less busy, I'll attempt to remove the offending code and replace it with something else, although there are only a certain number of ways that the FFT library can be used so it might be tricky. I dislike the idea of restrictive licences so would really like to get this back to the MIT license when I can.

[G6EJD]

Well you need to write the code again from the ground up and don't copy my ideas, including the deliberate errors in the analysis code that proves it was a copy!

[s-marley]

I guess I just don't understand your approach. Don't you make the videos to teach and help people? What's the problem with them then using your code, crediting you everywhere people might look, and then creating their own things with it?

I love it when I see people using my code, it means they enjoyed what I did and they were inspired to make something for themselves. If they credit me that's great, if not, who cares? It doesn't cause me any harm and brings them enjoyment. Almost every piece of code ever put together by makers and hobbyists is based on previous code and ideas that generous individuals have put online for people to learn from, alter and improve.

You seem to have a very protective view of what you do. I don't understand why, but in any case I'll be careful to ensure that I don't use your content going forward, which is a real shame, as I think your knowledge and information could be really helpful.

I made a mistake in not including the licence, I have admitted as much and corrected the mistake. Hopefully I have done enough that we can leave it here.

On Wed, 2 Mar 2022, 12:39 G6EJD, @.***> wrote:

Well you need to write the code again from the ground up and don't copy my ideas, including the deliberate errors in the analysis code that proves it was a copy!

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/s-marley/ESP32_FFT_VU/issues/12#issuecomment-1056885048, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACSGWSKQGBUGXA775IM3N23U55OQLANCNFSM5PW6QSLQ . Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675 or Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub.

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[G6EJD]

You don’t have to deal with Russian and Polish pirates who blatantly copy other peoples code.

[davidlmorris]

Let us be clear here. You can copyright code (or a work of literature), but you cannot copyright ideas. I would be keen to see a fix/change that removed any suggestion of a copyright violation. (And, I find Scott's approach here more than reasonable.)

[G6EJD]

It’s really quite simple, abide by the copyright notice or don’t use the code! The code cannot be used commercially, what is it that you don’t understand?

And you must recognise me as the author.

[davidlmorris]

The "don't copy my ideas" part. (So which part is the offending code?) That and saying it was an MIT license and then all the additions, which look to me like certain very commercial license from the early 80's. (BTW I have no intention at this time to use the mega project I had built using some of Scott's code, therefore presumably yours as well, for any commercial purpose... but you never know one day I might want to release it. And, I might even want to make a YouTube video!).

[s-marley]

There's nothing good that can come from bringing this issue back up as there are unreconcilable differences of opinion at play. I am locking the thread.