[shadowgovt]

> Not everyone is interested in open sourcing their work - but somehow that's looked down upon. Why!? It is their work and respect it, there are so many people with pitch fork entitlement.

The pitchfork entitlement, to my observation, is reactionary to the force of law backing something that should be an individual's responsibility if they want to keep it secret but not supported by the threat of government-sanctioned violence.

Contrast another industry where secrecy is key. A magician never reveals their secrets, and there's material value in being able to pull off a trick that nobody else can. But what's the ramification if somebody figures a trick out and publishes it? It certainly isn't a crime. The worst of person might face is sanction from a magician's guild.

Given that we have a world where somebody can be sued for taking apart a physical artifact that they own and discovering secrets of its implementation, sharing those secrets, and modifying the thing based on knowledge of those secrets, the pitchforks are somewhat understandable.

[fermienrico]

Interesting point, I would say "Well done reverse engineering my foo.bin, that's a fine job. You wanna work for us?" or "Great, they've reverse engineered our IP. Time for us to put boosters on and out compete them by sheer hard work, more IP and see if they catch up."

Often times reverse engineering is harder than building the damn thing in the first place.

[bsder]

> But what's the ramification if somebody figures a trick out and publishes it? It certainly isn't a crime.

Um, actually it can be. Many magic tricks can be both copyrighted and patented.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/teller-wins-lawsui...

[dTal]

As the article points out, magic tricks per se are not copyrightable. What are copyrightable are performative works, that may include magic tricks.

The distinction is subtle - it means you're perfectly free to "steal" an (unpatented) method, provided you use it in a different act.

[jdsully]

Funny enough Teller, from Penn & Teller fame is attempting to use copyright to prevent his tricks from being revealed.

[dTal]

That's a slightly different case. It's not the stealing of the method that Teller objects to - it's the stealing of the act. The aesthetic, the script of the performance. Which I think is fair - it's an exceptionally artistic act, and performing it as one's own is rather like performing a song written by someone else without crediting them.

I don't think magical methods can be copyright. At best, they can be patented. It's not even clear that the copycat act uses the same method! But that's besides the point completely.