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Comment by ar7hur | Hacker News Reader

From the terms:

   By applying to Yellow, you agree to irrevocably waive any legal claim you 
   may have against us under any theory of law in any territory, including, without 
    limitation, copyright infringement or breach of implied in fact contract 
    (idea submission), that your rights were infringed due to any similarity between 
    your Content and any other content that is or may be developed by Snap

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The funniest part about this, is that the chain would continue into one of Facebook's products after snap gets it.

I come up with a great idea for storytelling --> Snap says "yeah, that's our's now" --> Facebook says "yeah, we prototyped it in a weekend and folded it into Instagram."

Yellow isn't looking for product ideas. They are looking for content.. Content is on a platform rather than folded into one, no?

This is actually reasonable. Without this, Snap would be asking for lawsuits from anyone that submits an idea that’s even close to an upcoming feature. At the end of the day, this incubator relies on trust, and founders should never take money from someone they distrust anyway.

it seems pretty one sided as far as trust goes

The idea is that I, an adversarial actor, could submit an (or many) applications, and then sue snap if they ever release a feature that resembles any of those submissions.

Basically, as a potential incubatee, I need to trust Snap. For them to remove that clause, Snap needs to trust that there will be 0 adversarial applicants. Thus a one-sided trust metric makes some level of sense.

Ok that makes sense now on its face it seems incredibly adversarial to the point where they could force you to be a drug mule as a team building exercise. But when you put it this way it makes perfect sense. Without this kind of protection you're open to a lawyer placing bogus applications just to launch series of lawsuits to effectively destroy the program for everyone.

Reallly submitting idea means you loose the IP, even sponsored Hackathons don't have that in their rules/contract.

should be a non-starter for anyone.

Yeah, I can easily acquire $150k somewhere else.

Edit: For the record, I'm being sarcastic here. My point is that it's hard to say that this "should be a non-starter for anyone", because almost no one can acquire a $150k investment under any condition, and it's a difficult decision one would have to make.

Please do tell more.

Freelance as a developer for a year? There are a fair few ways to make 150k without signing away your life. It just takes a bit of time ;)

Very few developers in the US can add $150k in post-tax cash flow in 12 months from a dead start. Depending on living expenses and tax situation, you need to gross $300k to $450k. I speak from experience: doable, but not easy.

The variable is 1) whether you're accepted, and 2) more specifically, whether they like your idea so much they rip it just by way of your mere application to Yellow. It's potentially a very expensive $150k.

"Give us your ideas"

I have a project which fits perfectly into what they are looking for, but these IP terms are ridiculous.

Any other suggestions of where I could get seed funding? (somewhere in EU would be even better)

Wondering outloud: given what facebook did to snapchat, would one assume that you have to "beat" snapchat (and anyone else) without resorting to a legal defense? In other words, if you can't beat snapchat at your own idea (assuming your idea is good enough to warrant their interest), are you doomed whether or not you signed a non-suit agreement?

Its as if Snap is deliberately trying to turn off founders.

Seems pretty standard.

It's not. YC has no such terms that I am aware of.

YC says this in regards to IP/ideas, though:

Will you sign an NDA? How do I know you won't steal my idea?

  No, we won't sign an NDA. No venture firm would at this 
  stage. The informal commitment to secrecy on our 
  application form is more than any VC would make.

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