Ask HN: Is it unethical to scrape OS code from GitHub to demo my SaaS features?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7451344

by ainla • 12 years ago

1 3 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

It's a hypothetical question. I'm thinking about productizing (and selling) one of our internal dev tools (as SaaS) and I'm wondering how would I market it. One scenario that I would imaging would be:

1. Scrape OS projects from GitHub (the ones, where my tool would add value). 2. Make "project" pages for them into my SaaS (where my value add is shown) and link back to original source in GitHub and authors. 3. Advertise the value of my product by bringing these projects as examples to public web. 4. Hoping for some inbound rush...

Contacting with every project owner and asking them to try out my thing...would be too time consuming for a small start-up :) If you guys think my plot here is dodgy, then I'll stick with the honest plan and just contact projects one-by-one.

robobro• 12 years ago

If you don't break the copyright terms, I don't think it's unethical.

ainla• 12 years ago

I would not touch the code and copyright terms. We just add metrics and visualization layers.

Question is more about linking to the GitHub project and creating "mirrored" profiles. I personally hate when some what-ever-app would copy my public social media profile to "add some value" to it publicly without asking me, but I wouldn't mind if they take my OS code and make it easier to consume.

That's my dilemma.

greenyoda• 12 years ago

Depending on which license the software uses, you might be violating the license terms. For example, the GNU GPL states:

"You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program."[1]

[1] https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

Ask HN: Is it unethical to scrape OS code from GitHub to demo my SaaS features?

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