Would you call out a developer who is copying your ideas AND design?

Sloan the DEV Moderator - Jul 5 '22 - - Dev Community

This is an anonymous post sent in by a member who does not want their name disclosed. Please be thoughtful with your responses, as these are usually tough posts to write. Email sloan@dev.to if you'd like to leave an anonymous comment or if you want to ask your own anonymous question.


I was working on a small project, and it started getting some traction. Another developer DMed me, asking me about how I made the project. I didn’t disclose the information, but they told me that they were “inspired” by my thing, and would update their own product now.

A couple days later, they announced a “Big new” feature on their product. It was a TOTAL ripoff of my thing. Even the design is exactly the same (but worse)! So the person literally copied my entire idea... like literally even the design, when I confronted him in Dms, he was like, it's not that similar like wtf? it's the same... he tried to rip off the same thing and made it worse

In fact, he even copied my twitter bio 💀

And copied the same logic I used for one more feature of my product.

That’s ridiculous. You know what’s even more ridiculous? His product now has 5 times as many users as mine. He used my idea, my design.

This is so unfair. But I have no idea what to do about it.

Is it right to call out someone who copied your idea? Because technically anyone can come up with it? I have the complete proof with the messages and everything. Is there something I can do, or should do in this situation? Or just sit around and keep developing my own product in hopes of it also getting popular one day?

All this happened a month ago. At this point, I honestly don’t care as much because I love my product and I also have a lot of users. But I also know that mine is obviously better (cause he ripped it off) and I’m the one who came up with the original idea.

I’d love some help.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Terabox Video Player