HOST - Assembla Inc. Breakout - Copyright Violation by Mr. Andy Singleton

Thu Oct 5 17:02:59 EDT 2006

[For some reason, the newsgroup server seems to not have distributed
the messages yet. Thus posting via groups-google now. first message was
from 2006-09-27, second message from 2006-09-28, both with a CC to Andy
Singleton]

Ilias Lazaridis wrote:
> Ilias Lazaridis wrote:
>> CC to      : Andy Singleton <andy at assembla.com>
>> followup to: c.l.ruby
>>
>> Despite several notifications, Mr. Andy Singleton of Assembla Inc.
>> continues to keep my contributions within the breakout project,
>> without payment of the related invoices, violating this way my copyright.
>>
>> I ask Mr. Singleton of Assembla Inc. once more to remove all material
>> (code, documentation, documentation changes, tickets) posted by my
>> person to the Breakout project under the user-name "lazaridis_com"
>> between 2006-07-15 00:00 and 2006-07-04 23:59 (GMT)
>
> correction: "and 2006-08-04 23:59"
>                  -----^^---
>
>> <http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/timeline?from=08%2F05%2F06&daysback=21&milestone=on&ticket=on&ticket_details=on&changeset=on&wiki=on&update=Update>
>
> Mr. Singleton,
>
> In reply to your private message (which states that you removed all of
> my original code, tickets and wiki pages):
>
> I can confirm that you've removed:
>
> * all tickets and ticket-comments
> * all original wiki pages and wiki-page-modifications
>
> -
>
> As to the code and other repository commits:
>
> You have removed a few (not all) of my commits from the repository...
>
> http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1429
>
> ...but this code is still active on the production server.
>
> As you said within the private email "it's a small amount of code".
>
> Thus it should be no problem to _immediately_ revert _all_ my commits
> from the repository and to _remove_ the code from the production server
> (and of course from all other servers which run breakout):
>
> for your convenience, here is a list:
>
> <http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/timeline?from=08%2F05%2F06&daysback=22&changeset=on&update=Update>

Mr. Singleton,

within privat email (2006-09-28), you've replied that you've looked at
the list and removed the original code. Additionally, you stated that
it will be deployed after testing (to the production server).

It's a small amount of code (and configuration-file changes), so why do
you need time for this simple task?

After waiting one further week, I ask you once more to revert the
commits from the repository and from the production server(s) (where my
contributions are still active):

Possibly missed during last revert:

http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1323

Not reverted:

http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1316

http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1326
http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1327

http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1328
http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1329

you do _not_ need to revert those commits (as they've been overridden
by the update or contain irrelevant commits):

http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1313
http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1314
http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1315
http://tools.assembla.com/breakout/changeset/1330

-

I wish you good luck in further adopting "Open Source Practices" whilst
bringing them to "commercial software development".

Hopefully your clients are aware of what can happen within public
projects: a public confrontation.

I am just one individual - imagine what happens if a whole community
detects an abuse...!

-

One final tip:

If you edit manually posts / your writings on a infrastructure under
your control (assembla.com), whilst adding messages which you've
previously posted::

"Also, I don’t want your code. I will replace any code that you
wrote."
http://assembla.com/flows/show_comment/a_Q598si0r26njaaeP0Qfc#showReply=false

do not forget one thing:

The internet-caches (like e.g. google cache):

"Also, I don’t want your code. I will replace any code that you
wrote, that is not covered by the GPL licensing that applies to our
Trac code, if I can find any."
<http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:15NB7Z3ufJIJ:tools.assembla.com/breakout/ticket/484+Simply:+what%27s+going+on+here%3F&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1>

-

Note to readers:

You can find the whole case here:

http://case.lazaridis.com/wiki/Assembla

.

> I still don't understand why you've not kept you're offer of a partial
> payment:
>
> http://beta.assembla.com/flows/show/by2rhcrQKr25-kadbivGe2#showReply=false
> http://beta.assembla.com/flows/show/a_Q598si0r26njaaeP0Qfc#showReply=false
>
> (You can still do this, in order to avoid further effort.)
>
> -
>
> Finally, to cover your curiosity about the "objective of my request"
> (and your hope that I've achieved it):
>
> a) To protect my rights and to avoid commercial use of my _commercial_
> (but unpaid) contributions to a _commercial_ project.
>
> b) Το showcase negative side-effects of "Development Only Open Source
> Licenses" (like Assembla Breakout uses).
>
> c) To inform other developers about upcoming "Commercial Open Source"
> projects and the importancy of the copyright-payment-guarantee:
>
> http://case.lazaridis.com/wiki/CopyrightPaymentGuarantee
>
> -
>
> And of course, eveything negative has it positive sides, too:
>
> I'm collecting experiences in order to collaborate better with external
> developers within my first open source project:
>
> http://dev.lazaridis.com/base
>
>> Background Information:
>>
>> In order to reduce effort, Assembla was choosen as a possible host for
>> different personal projects, mainly due to the trac tool, see:
>>
>> http://case.lazaridis.com/wiki/Host
>>
>> The Audit showed that the Assembla Breakout System does not met
>> several requirements and that trac was integrated in a immature way:
>>
>> http://case.lazaridis.com/wiki/Assembla
>>
>> The main interest was "Trac", and thus a rework was suggested
>> (commercial, reduced open source rates):
>>
>> http://case.lazaridis.com/wiki/AssemblaReworkTrac
>>
>> the Assembla Breakout project has not much to do with Open Source, see
>> this report:
>>
>> http://case.lazaridis.com/wiki/AssemblaTeamRating
>>
>> Finally, despite Assembla Breakout beeing a commercial project
>> (development only open source), the team-lead assumes people are
>> contributing for free. This has led to the need to verify the
>> "Copyright Payment Guarantee":
>>
>> http://case.lazaridis.com/wiki/CopyrightPaymentGuarantee
> 
> .
> 

-- 
http://lazaridis.com