Ask HN: Is it unethical to clone a popular app and release it as open source? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is it unethical to clone a popular app and release it as open source?

1 pointpassword14 comments

I recreated a popular Mac utility app to learn more about Swift, I don't want to sell it and I'm just thinking of releasing it for free along with the code. It would be nice to have a small open source project under my belt and I could meet new people that want to contribute.

But I feel bad for the original developer, since he's just an indie dev and not some big company. Just wondering what's the community opinion on this.

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No.

Competition is the only way we get better goods and services.

That person is offering support and will have a reason to keep improving their product, giving customers a reason to buy it or keep using it. People who try your product will appreciate what this kind of product can do, and many of those people never will have tried the original.

If those users have discovered the value, that gives the original developer and opportunity to turn them on to something better since the for-profit model creates a feedback loop that does exactly that. If the developer doesn’t want to reinvest in their product that is their decision to go out of business.

You have a moral obligation to share some of the benefit you receive from your work with the developer of the product you cloned. What benefit are we talking about? Maybe a credit will be enough - ask the developer if you can. You can also release the code under fair code* license and share a portion of any potential monetary rewards with the developer.

* https://n8n.io/blog/fair-code-for-sustainable-open-source-al...

No.

You are maximizing the freedom that users have by allowing them complete understanding of the instructions running on their machines. Unlike the original app, your users can audit the behavior and guarantee it's safe to run.

Is it unethical to clone the Olive Garden’s lasagna recipe and post it on the internet?

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