Mr. He’s open source software incident: a rational analysis of infringement and moral disputes

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Recently, Mr. He, a well-known blogger at Bilibili with over 10 million fans, has been caught in a storm of public opinion and has been criticized by many open source developers. This incident attracted widespread attention. What are the facts, whether Mr. He committed infringement, and whether there are moral issues, are worthy of our in-depth combing and rational analysis.

event history

In the video released by Mr. He on November 15, a piece of code flashed, and he claimed that he had written a software specifically for this. However, sharp-eyed netizens discovered that the code originated from an open source project. Later, a friend posted an Issue under the GitHub open source project repository, pointing out that the Chinese VLOG named "Hello Teacher, my name is Classmate He" had this problem, which attracted a lot of attention. EPCDIY, the owner of Bilibili UP with more than 700,000 fans, also pointed out this problem of Mr. He. On November 19, he issued an apology statement and changed the original video, changing "Written a software specifically" to "Changed this open source software." The top comment pointed out that the character transposition program used in the video was modified from the open source project assy generator. Modifications include optimizing character generation ratios, image cropping methods, and parameter transmission methods. However, looking closely at the original code, there are only 70 lines in total. This statement inevitably gives the impression of exaggerating the changes and makes the apology seem insincere. At the same time, when He admitted his mistake, he also blamed himself for not being rigorous enough in his video copywriting. While this has responsibility, it has also caused controversy.

Open source projects affected by the incident

This incident caused the number of stars of the open source project to increase significantly, from about 1.9K to 5.9K. The original author of the open source project is Vietnamese and has also spoken out on this matter.

Analysis of whether there is infringement

The open source project assy generator uses the MIT license, which is a very open license that allows users to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, etc. From a superficial understanding of the law, although He did not violate the MIT agreement, it only required that the license file be retained in the project, which contained the author's copyright information. Even if you change other files and delete the names, it doesn't matter. However, it should be noted that complying with the MIT open source license does not mean complying with copyright law. Classmate He’s behavior may violate copyright law and damage the copyright and intellectual property rights of the original author. After all, copyright law is more effective than open source agreements, which are similar to contracts. Rights of use and reproduction are granted and copyright is granted by copyright law.

Discussion of moral aspects

Classmate He was accused of moral turpitude. The key is that the first three lines of code shown in the video were removed. But Mr. He is no longer an individual, but Mr. He’s studio, in the form of a company. Judging from the code download under the username "Xiao Bu", it is speculated that there may be an employee responsible for this part of the work. For example, "Xiaobu", as a migrant worker, found out that open source code was available after receiving the task. He didn't tell his boss where the code came from. He removed the original author's name and then reported the task completed to show that he had done a good job. Therefore, this incident alone cannot 100% determine that he is morally corrupt. There may be issues with collaboration within the company, or the employee responsible for writing the code is deliberately hiding information. All we can say is that he is probably morally corrupt.

reflection on events

There was strong emotion in the comments on the question post about the incident. Some people, out of justice, hope that he will apologize, abide by the MIT license, and ensure that similar incidents never happen again. This is undoubtedly the right request. However, some people deliberately exaggerated the incident and launched cyber attacks against Mr. He after achieving their just goals. In fact, this open source project only has a few small files, each of about 50 lines. The implementation principle is simple, and there is no huge and complicated software as imagined. We should look at this matter rationally and not blindly follow the trend of accusations. Among those who criticize him, we need to reflect on how many people are truly speaking out for open source, and how many are just taking the opportunity to add insult to injury.

In short, in the face of such incidents, we should maintain a rational and objective attitude, pay attention to open source rules and copyright protection, avoid being overly emotional, avoid exaggerating, restore the truth of the incident, and promote healthy development. The development of network environment. Everyone is welcome to share your opinions and discuss together in the comment area.

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