[jdawg77]

If this isn't lies, and you live in a country with IP laws, it's easy:

Step 1. Validate your claim is legit; documentation and everything goes a long way. Archive.org is actionable in court (for fun, I put up an article on how I can invalidate several Microsoft patents, due to my prior art from 2000 - the patent was in 2008).

Step 2. Get in touch with your own lawyers, after getting some advice on RocketLawyer or similar. To whit, I could not get a lawyer to take my case last year, despite prior case rules in California, referral from a District Attorney AND a victory in California court through mediation, with more charges still pending against the startup.

Step 3. Assuming even like me, you have legal precedent, history and proof - you need funding. Apparently, as I have found, nobody gives a !@#$@$ in the United States of America about actual crime. I've got a ton of documentation, the only thing I have yet to do is literally CALL the police, and ask, point blank, "Why is that man not in jail?"

Step 4. Now that you how hard this uphill battle is guaranteed to be, if you have the proof, if you have the lawyer friends, finally - do you have the money? Can you get it? If that's true on both, review your stomach, because it'll be a long, hard battle. Family, friends and business associates have all "Disowned me," for various reasons, even though I was the victim. Unreal, but true. See Gamergate as well - the victim loses in the modern USA, at least. Other countries, like Maldives, Costa Rica - the victim also loses.

Step 5. Prepare to lose your professional reputation, even if you win in mediation. I'd love to say that if you win in court, like Michael Jackson before you, that somehow, people realize it wasn't you who did wrong. However, sadly, many people still believe he's a pedophile, many people don't believe I was robbed and fired while my boss was in Hawaii, my step-dad in hospital with 10% chance to live.

Sorry, bro. If you want a referral to awesome lawyers, I'm happy to help and do whatever it takes to help somebody. I care. I just wish other people would, too.

[morgante]

He released the IP under an open source license.

Litigating this is both foolhardy and an uphill battle. Even if he can prove that they weren't giving proper credit, it's extremely hard to prove damages when there is an open source license.

[jdawg77]

Proving damages, with open source on the backs of funding, is relatively easy for an attorney with startup experienc, knows how much it costs to build a brand + reputation, etc. Then you can put together a financial model on, "Opportunity cost," re-coup it in a civil case, on top of and after the criminal case is finished. A good law firm will file both separately.

Nice, though, for crapping on his chances. I love the positive thinking.

[morgante]

What criminal case?

They have every right to use his software. Under the Apache license, they typically don't even have to publicly admit to using it.

Their only fault is likely glossing over the exact details of what code they wrote and what code they licensed, and even that only in private with investors.

I just don't see how there's any sort of case here. They haven't infringed on any IP.

[task_queue]

Certainly not criminal. The Apache license has stipulations for attribution, if someone is claiming your copyrighted work as their own and stripping attributions to attain funds then it could be argued that the code was distributed among them against the license and with the intention of violating it for financial gain.

[morgante]

> and forgot to remove the links to my site

Sounds like attributions are intact. The startup might be misrepresenting things to investors in conversations, but if the actual code attribution is in place then it'd be very difficult to prove a violation of the license.

[jdawg77]

So, thanks for the downvote. I had a suspicion, given the venom, then reviewed your LinkedIn profile.

Before saying, "There is no criminal case," review some facts - and the legal aspects of state vs nation in the US of A. If a law passes in say, New York - it doesn't impact people in my home state of California. It can be used as precedent...but, seriously.

I've gone toe to toe with multiple governments about their own legal system and Neither of us is a lawyer...right? Right. So, as I mentioned, get somebody qualified, pursue both sets of charges. Financial fraud and racketeering, given the nature of the issue (VC funding) are Federal, not State, issues.

Wow. Please, please next time if it's legal, you're not a lawyer and have zero experience...let the adults talk who have been there. My 14 year old knows the American legal system better, who hasn't lived here two years, and holds multiple passports.

What's your excuse again?

[charlesdm]

How could he even prove that?

Why would an investor, who has potentially invested money in this venture, hand over evidence like that?

I'd assume they'd just attribute him in the future (in some obscure corner of their product/website), and be done with it.

[task_queue]

An investor associated with that venture went out of his way to spill the beans and probably would hand it over unknowingly if asked nicely.

But I agree with your conclusion.