Speaking out of one own’s behind: Michael Arrington
Filed under Intertubes on April 9th, 2008
Can you believe this thread?
Some Google employess released a blatant (semi-endorsed by Google) rip-off of 37 Signals’ Campfire.
When people all around the Intertubes complained, Google took it down.
Michael Arrington comments on TechCrunch:
Google showcased HuddleChat, a real-time chat application, as one of many test applications (directory here) to show off their new Google App Engine platform last night.
Some bloggers noted that the application was a rip off of Campfire, a 37Signals product. And 37Signals CEO Jason Fried used HuddleChat as a PR opportunity, telling ReadWriteWeb “We’re flattered Google thinks Campfire is a great product, we’re just disappointed that they stooped so low to basically copy it feature for feature, layout for layout…We thought that would be beneath Google, but maybe its time to reevaluate what they stand for.”
So, Google can rip-off his company’s product, but when Jason complains he uses the rip-off as a “PR opportunity”? That’s beyond double standards.
Frankly, the reaction is fairly ridiculous. But this is apparently a fight that Google doesn’t want to be involved in. They pulled the application and replaced it with the above notice.
Ridiculous, why exactly? Because mr. Arrington does not make any money out of Campfire? Because it is OK to rip-off a user interface verbatim?
Would mr. Arrington complain if someone copies his article word for word -maybe with some adjectives changed? Or if Google launched a TechCrunch clone, with the same layout done in blue?
I wonder if Darren Delaye, Braden Kowitz, and Kyle Consalus, the Google developers who created HuddleChat, had much of a say in the decision. And why, since HuddleChat is not an official Google product, was it Google that made the decision to pull it down and not the developers who created it? Google was very careful to say that they were not affiliated with HuddleChat while it was up - that, apparently, wasn’t the case.
Obviously that wasn’t the case, just a lame excuse used by Google. To begin with, according to the law, code by Google employees belongs to Google. Furthemore, this was not a code submission by some independent developer, or a Google guy in his spare time. It was done as an inside project, and released to showcase Google’s new application platform.
As far as I’m concerned, this is the first case of censorship on the new Google App Engine platform, and a bad precedent.
Why? Are there any other web application platform vendors that gladly host rip-offs on their platforms? Would Amazon host a widget-by-widget and form-by-form rip-off of Flickr on AWS, for example, or would they take it down?
Our test application for Google App Engine is here.
See if we care.
The rest of the comments are just as hilarious.
Some argue that “all chat clients have to look more or less the same”. E, no, they don’t. Adium, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, Skype!, GTalk, all are quite different beasts from a GUI perspective. If I was to release a widget perfect rip-off of any of these, with a different color scheme, people would call me a thief. For good reason.
Others complain about the whining done by 37 Signals on the matter. Without noticing that 37 Signals has not done any. It was third party bloggers, journalists and users complained about HuddleChat.
Other’s still, green with jealousy, complain about 37 Signals and it’s founders. They are “arrogant”, they say, and they had “enough of them”, etc. Like it has anything to do with the case at hand.
Against Intertube’s crowds, god’s themselves contend in vain.
