Copyright & Obfuscation

I have recently started developing Windows Sidebar gadgets for a bit of fun. My first gadget was developed to poll my ISP and pull down my quota information. So far I have put a fair amount of work into it (I should state I am not a developer, but rather a Project Manager and sunk a heap of time into it over Christmas).

I noticed whilst browsing through the gallery today a gadget that had the same background graphic that I spent a couple of hours doing. On closer inspection, the source code of the gadget still had my copyright statement, comments, function names and variables!

My question here is, do copyright statements hold up in Gadgets Is it worth putting them in Are they enforcable Will MS pull gadgets from the gallery based on infringements

Of course, copyright is only half the problem. As Javascript and HTML cannot be compiled there will always be ways of 'just checking how they did it' and viewing the source code. Can Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets be compressed and Obfusticated If so, what is the best tool for it

I would love to hear your comments / thoughts and suggestions.

Regards,
Alex.

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Copyright & Obfuscation

Scott Allison

I'd like to know the answer to that, too. It's worrying if you are a developer because you can put a lot of time and effort into something just to find other people have ripped it off anyway. I don't mind people learning how to do stuff from my code, or taking a little bit of it for use on a gadget with a different purpose, but copying a gadget's code and purpose completed is way out of order.

The best way of securing your gadget code is to do most of it in ActiveX, I think. Some of my gadgets (like my National Lottery Results gadget) use XML taken from my website, so I use a bit of code in my PHP to make sure no one else can use that XML without putting in a lot of (wasted) time and effort into it.

Andy
LRA
Donavon ran into the exact same issue not too long ago. He addressed the problem by contacting the author directly. I'd suggest that's where you start as well. In Donavon's case, the author was willing to work with him to remove the offending code. However if the author doesn't work with you to fix the problem, you'll be in uncharted territory. I'd suggest you post here (like you've already done), use the "Report" link on Gallery to report the infringement (you'll have to use the "Other" category -- it'd be nice if Gallery had a field for copyright infringment like QnA has in their "Report" form), and if all else fails you should be able to contact Chris Butler directly. You should be able to prove the infringement without a doubt (the infringer leaving copyright text in his code makes it obvious that he's infringing, but if he cleans the code of copyright then you're going to have a tougher time proving that he copied from you rather than vice versa). If the infringing code is hosted somewhere besides Gallery, you'll have to track down the webmaster for that site instead and hope they'll play ball.

My opinion Don't publish anything you're not willing to have others steal, copy, and blatantly claim as their own. There's always going to be idiots like that out there, and the steps needed to combat them often hurt more people than they help (for example, I never would've gotten as interested in gadgets if I hadn't been able to skim through the source code to Donavon's Live Clock -- I never used his code in my own, but the concepts, structure, and organization of the code inspired me in my own gadget development). Yes, be vigilant about your code and people trying to claim it as their own, but you need to be aware of the fact that you'll never stop them all. That's just a sad fact of life.
Rachad
Hi Chris,

Thanks for the info.

I am in the process of trying to contact the guy involved, but it appears I am at the mercy of the information the user in particular wants to divulge in their gadget manifest. The gallery itself does not appear to have a mechanism to contact the author directly (maybe an idea for a future release ).

I will give the guy a couple more days to respond, then take the action suggested.

Regards,

Alex.
fdc2005

Hi Alex (and everyone else).

I would recommend you try to contact the person first and resolve things directly, but this may not always work...

If you do want to report a copyright problem to Microsoft use the information here:

http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyrtInfrg.htm

Thanks.
Copyright & Obfuscation

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