FOSS for the professional; how close of a copy of their favorite app. is legal?

The idea for this thread is based on the initial responses when news about Natron hit CGTalk.

Let’s just say their impressions aren’t as glowing as those here on BA, some even going to far to say it’s a blatantly cheap rip of Nuke (from the logo to the UI to the background). It also remains to be seen if The Foundry is okay with it because there’s a thread on a Modo forums regarding it as well.

Which brings the question…

In some cases, it can be seen as a sensible thing to do for FOSS to copy the commercial software because it may or may not be the only way they can ever get to where professionals are actually using it, but just how close can they go (like Blender copying Maya or Krita copying photoshop) until it becomes more of a stench to the professionals they’re trying to attract rather than an aroma?

I’ve never used Nuke so I have no clue how similar they actually are, or what repercussions there might be. Inkscape’s UI is a clone of Xara and nobody seems to care, for example.

UI’s being a clone of something else is hardly actionable for the vast majority of software. It’s been done since the dawn of the computing era (though one must say it is hilarious when Apple complains about others doing it now!).

For that matter, whilst I see two(?) people speaking about it being a complete rip-off of Nuke in a negative fashion, most of the (small) thread seems not to care too much. Just like there are fanboys that complain when Apple / Samsung / Microsoft / etc copy something done by one of their competitors (be it a small inspiration through to wholesale design/interface copy) - the same is going to happen with Nuke. However, on the whole, most professionals simply want to use a tool that gets the job done. If Natron is easy to use due to it’s familiarity, that’s going to be an upside for the vast majority of people.

Difference for difference’s sake is not helpful. Copying for copying’s sake is not helpful either. Natron developers, on the other hand, have explained in detail why they think closely mirroring the Nuke interface and functionality is good thing and, at least at this time, most professionals I’ve talked to or read who have played with it are either in agreement or ambivalent.

Quote from that thread

“Secondly when you implement an application which will be used by professionals who potentially have a lot of background in the usage of such software, you want to make sure you don’t break all their habits, otherwise they won’t bother.”

Bingo… do Blender “managers” get this very simple fact? So far it seems they don’t…

Nothing to add.

well, it’s illegal if you violate:
Copyright (exact copies of icons, graphic design, wording, or code)
Patents (if they patented any features and you copied them)
Trademarks (if you use phrases or names that the original company trademarked).

Also, you have to present enough of a problem for the original company to bother to sue you. If they don’t bother then it doesn’t matter whether it’s legal or not.

Otherwise ripoffs are legal. The spirit of plagiarism isn’t against the law, unless it ultimately violates one of the above.

Also, they can sue you regardless, so if you plan on being successful (like Blender) then it’s best not to resemble anything too closely, or they will find a reason to drag you into court and reduce their competition.

I did find it interesting that when browsing for a tutorial or getting started video in their forum they basically said to just watch Nuke tutorials. LOL.

To be frank, quite close actually. If you read legalities (of the sane ones) you will realize that you can’t copyright font or color, for example (as in logos and company color).

Actually, these topic is pretty deep and I don’t have the time. But it require intensive reading. And quite interesting actually.

And sometimes, just because you are right, doesn’t mean you have the resource to win in a legal battle. For example you could try copy Ribbon functionality, but if you are a small software company, Microsoft is not someone you want to meet in legal battle.

There was two commercial PlayStation emulator, Bleem! and GameStation (if I remember the name right). Both are LEGAL. But due to company size, Sony bought the later and Bleem! just went belly up due to court case (they re just two man company if I remember correctly). But these are interesting cases, since they are emulating a hardware.

Winning also isn’t everything. When Samsung wins over Apple, Obama administration override the solution (stop the sale of older Iphone, I think).

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324136204578646192008412934

TL, DR - From what I heard, some of the NUKE founder were a fan of open source. And due to NUKE price, and target market, they just don’t care. And that is why the conversation exist at modo forum and nobody cares (including the mods).

The original creator of Nuke, Bill Spitzak, is still a developer of Fast, Light ToolkitI noticed him ranting on the Wayland mailing list recently :wink: