An open source project's source code was stolen in its entirety by a startup, and a different license was added without permission, causing a huge uproar

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you didnt build shit in 4 days

you yoinked a gpl-v3 code, slapped an apache license on it, and called it a startup

here's a quick 101 on how not to steal open source @garrytan @ycombinator is this what you invest in? yuck https://t.co/RJDhKGY31Z

— soham (@soham_btw) July 4, 2025

On July 3, 2025, Daniel announced that he had developed a real-time conference assistant called ' Glass ' in just four days and released it as open source under the Apache 2.0 license. This is a tool that uses screen capture and voice analysis to allow the AI assistant to respond in various ways depending on the content of video conferences, interviews, and presentations.

However, Soham responded by strongly criticizing Daniel, saying that he did not develop the tool in just four days, but that he simply plagiarized the code of a similar real-time conference assistant tool called ' cheating-daddy ' that he had released under the GPLv3 license, licensed it under the Apache 2.0 license, and called it a 'startup.'

'If you develop new software using code licensed under the GPLv3 license, that software must also be released under the same GPLv3 license, but Daniel and his team released Glass under the incompatible Apache 2.0 license, which is a violation of the license,' said Soham. 'They're going to steal the GPLv3-licensed code, release it under the Apache 2.0 license, and then wait for Glass to become popular before making it closed source.'

Soham also pointed out that not only the source code, but also the comments in the code and the versions of the libraries used are identical to his own project.

even the comments are the same lmao pic.twitter.com/3d1CxvWnaz

— soham (@soham_btw) July 4, 2025

'Is this really what you're investing in? It's disgusting,' Soham said of Y Combinator, the venture capital firm that has invested in Daniel's startup, and its CEO, Garry Tan. 'Frankly, this is a blemish on the reputation of Y Combinator and CEO Garry Tan.'

bad look for @ycombinator and @garrytan , honestly

to real builders out there, just build, it's not that hard

so many yc companies are just weekend wrappers,
this is just another example

— soham (@soham_btw) July 4, 2025

In response to this uproar, Daniel posted an apology on X (formerly Twitter), saying, 'When we released Glass, we included the cheating-daddy project, which was released by soham under the GPLv3 license, under the Apache license. Our work was inappropriate and sloppy.'

Hi everyone, this is Daniel from the Pickle team.

We messed up: when launching Glass we included code from @soham_btw 's GPL project( @cheating_daddy ) but labeled it Apache. This was incorrect and sloppy work on our end. We made a quick fix and are working right now to do a proper… pic.twitter.com/qNaxq6C8KA

— Daniel (@leinadpark) July 4, 2025

In addition, Daniel commented on the social news site HackerNews , 'In the initial development stage, we mistakenly labeled the code of a GPLv3 licensed project as Apache. This was an inadvertent mistake on our part. We immediately corrected it and are currently working on the appropriate corrections to completely and clearly resolve the issue. We deeply apologize to soham (cheating-daddy), the original author of the project.' However, HackerNews has received harsh opinions such as, 'In other words, this is illegal and unethical work ,' and ' If you have any respect for the work and justice of others, instead of continuing this way, you should sincerely apologize and stop the project .'

The license for 'Glass' has since been changed, and as of the time of writing, it is now GPLv3 licensed. In addition, the README for the GitHub repository states, 'This project is a fork of cheating-daddy, with modifications and enhancements. Thanks to soham and all open source contributors for making this possible.' 'We are currently working on refactoring and modularizing the entire code. Once that is complete, we will begin addressing major issues. The issues and change history in progress are listed at the bottom of this document.'