Show HN: Open Source Constellation T-Shirts | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Open Source Constellation T-Shirts

github.com

68 pointsteonite36 comments

It would be nice if the star positions had been taken from real star positions, picking an optimal set to match the desired shape (a fun data project for someone with more time than me), rather than just plonked down any old how.

Yeah, I initially got excited by the link for this reason too. You might be able to do something with Astrometry.net (http://astrometry.net/gallery.html), by first converting the logo to a set of points. But they might just reject non-star images (or images where the points don't exactly match).

Since it's open source, why not create just a PR with proposed changes?

I've always been interested in doing ACTUAL open-source clothing. Cuts, stitches, production process, etc. Let's make the best tshirt ever!

Have a look at freesewing.org, it's an open source platform for made-to-measure sewing patterns.

Full disclosure: I'm the maintainer

Very, very, very cool. You may just get me into some serious sewing.

I do the same with laptop stickers: https://github.com/mikemaccana/stickers

but the t-shirts include a free concept of logo constellations, so it's more than just t-shirts ;)

The snapchat for databases one caused me to laugh for at least a minute. Thank you!

snapchat :D good one!

Hi Nailer, how do you use these? I can't seem to open a .sketch file on my Linux machine. Would you be willing to share a cross-platform version of your stickers?

Figma can open .sketch files and runs on Linux.

Thank you, for some reason I didn't come across that in my search. Much appreciated.

It's cool. People dowmmod you for asking about Linux but its a legit question, I moved to Windows a couple of years ago and having them in .sketch has always been a pain.

Note: Clothing designs are not copyrightable. Illustrations on a T-shirt may well be, though.

> Clothing designs are not copyrightable.

In a number of (non-US, currently, though there are recurrant efforts in the US, too) jurisdictions, there is shorter-term, copyright-like protection for clothing design.

Yeah, I know in some markets it's like '7 points of differentiation' that have to be proven at court to be considered an original design.

Can patches be applied to my t-shirt after it’s been printed? ;)

(Sorry but I almost never make puns but I had to make this one.)

You can actually use diluted bleach to modify dark shirts pretty easily - so yes!

Can you put a copyright on constellations? You might be able to put a license on the code that produces the lines, but I don't think the final results should be copyrighted.

INAL but from my limited understanding of copyright law you can't copyright facts. However original works in any medium are protected, so the code and also the images themselves would be copyrighted at the time of creation. But anyone could create another set of similar yet original code which could output similar images and not be in violation. Subsequently these new works would also be copywrited at the time of creation... Ad nauseam

I don't really find this to fit the name "Open Source". It's simply a project with published assets. A cool idea, yes, but even the process isn't even documented that well.

> Ultimately, we decided on a full-print T-shirt printed on both sides, which was made for us by a local, friendly printing house.

The one interesting part, where to acquire fully printed t-shirts in Europe, was left out.

I think it's a nice start to see "Open Source" term used not only for developing purposes, but also for things we use every day. Nice job!

I love that it introduces people to it and gives them positive associations, however I think we risk watering down the term, not always being clear what "open source" means in a given context. This project itself is a good example in my opinion.

Refer to my top-level comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16386307

Heads up to anyone else following the "just buy the shirt" link, it won't work unless you prefix with https://.

Working link is: https://teonite.cupsell.com/

This statement doesn't apply to this project but remember organizations still have trademarks. See https://www.python.org/psf/trademarks/ for an example.

yes, but they're not using the logo itself, it's just like an inspiration for creating constelations which are open source

I was disappointed to see this was just for the graphic, not for the actual design of the t-shirt.

In the US, an open source clothing design is superfluous since such designs are not usually protected (outside the scope of copyright, rarely qualify for patent, trade dress, or other protection.)

Clothing design in the copyright context means the pattern of the clothing, not images or text, and copyright for clothing generally applies to non-functional flourishes or design elements. In this case, the logos are derivative works of presumably copyrighted logos of open source projects.

Im repeating myself, but have a look at freesewing.org, it's an open source platform for made-to-measure sewing patterns.

Full disclosure: I'm the maintainer

What do you mean? There are actual print designs for t-shirt print shops!

They probably mean instructions to create a t-shirt from raw materials.

Well, does need some open-source improvement indeed. hasaatr printed wrong even on the shirts!

In a way, you're open sourcing logo designs copyrighted by others, though. Some OSS projects may not care, but others can be just as protective of their branding as full-fledged companies, from what I've seen.

I don’t think that a constellation - lines and dots is under any copyright. It’s like saying that python logo has a python so it validates all logos that has snakes in logos.. Remember, no actual logos were used, changed, modified...

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