# Aaron Bedra@Relevance Inc fraudulently claiming ownership of BSD licensed code -- how to protect? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 30, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/aaron-bedra-relevance-inc-fraudulently-claiming-ownership-of-bsd-licensed-code-how-to-protect/154490 "2008-11-30T18:03:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rudi_C)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/aaron-bedra-relevance-inc-fraudulently-claiming-ownership-of-bsd-licensed-code-how-to-protect/154490/1 "2008-11-30T18:03:05Z")
Hi everybody, I have been programming open source for about fifteen years and have many projects, including a small contribution to the Linux kernel and Ruby. I had the singularly unpleasant experience for the first time this morning to be notified thru email that somebody has taken one of the projects I made about six years ago (MPI-Ruby) and removed my name (and COPYRIGHT info) as well as all other contributing authors. [http://aaronbedra.com/2008/4/18/mpi-ruby-officially-released](http://aaronbedra.com/2008/4/18/mpi-ruby-officially-released) [MPIRuby download | SourceForge.net](http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpiruby) (see, same source code on sourceforge – 2003 – but with my name and the previous author, E. Ong, removed, as well as the University of Chicago, another supporter as well as the US Government) ## Then he added his own name. Apparently he is well-known enough to speak at Rails Conf. I notice that his company website, Relevance, describe Aaron’s abilities thusly: > **[Cognitect, a Nu Holdings, Ltd. Company](https://cognitect.com/)** Aaron Bedra Programmer ## Aaron brings the ability to quickly ninja any application. At this point, because Relevance markets their company as “supporting open source”, I wanted to point out that it seems to me they are actually just removing names, copying, and putting their own names on other people’s work. This is my experience and it feels like a violation of open source principles. > **[Cognitect, a Nu Holdings, Ltd. Company](https://cognitect.com/)** I was surprised that Aaron never even tried to email me and also surprised that he didn’t just add his name to the list of noble contributors kept in the original source code. I’d have been fine with that. I hope the Open Source community has a plan for how to defend against fraudulent IP claims and would appreciate any advice. Best regards, Rudi C. ---
**Author:** ![Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rudi_C)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/aaron-bedra-relevance-inc-fraudulently-claiming-ownership-of-bsd-licensed-code-how-to-protect/154490/2 "2008-11-30T19:34:35Z")
On Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Rudi C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I was surprised that Aaron never even tried to email me and also > surprised that he didn’t just add his name to the list of noble > contributors kept in the original source code. I’d have been fine > with that. I hope the Open Source community has a plan for how to > defend against fraudulent IP claims and would appreciate any advice. Did you contact him or his company? If your code is GPLed, you might get some help from [http://www.gpl-violations.org/](http://www.gpl-violations.org/) Marcelo ---
**Author:** ![Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rudi_C)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/aaron-bedra-relevance-inc-fraudulently-claiming-ownership-of-bsd-licensed-code-how-to-protect/154490/3 "2008-11-30T19:41:38Z")
Rudi C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes: > [MPIRuby download | SourceForge.net](http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpiruby) (see, same source > > other people’s work. This is my experience and it feels like a > violation of open source principles. > > [Cognitect, a Nu Holdings, Ltd. Company](http://thinkrelevance.com/open-source) > > I was surprised that Aaron never even tried to email me From the following page on Aaron’s site: [http://aaronbedra.com/2008/2/1/mpi-ruby-now-available-for-ruby-1-8-x](http://aaronbedra.com/2008/2/1/mpi-ruby-now-available-for-ruby-1-8-x) “I tried emailing the people that were in charge of the project according to the info on the site, but all the emails just bounced back…If you were part of the original project it would be great to hear from you. I would love to keep things going and would like to see what other people are doing with Ruby and MPI.” If someone has in fact removed your copyright notices and name, I can understand you being very upset; I would feel the same way. However, may I respecfully suggest you contact Aaron personally (if you haven’t already) rather than continue this in a public forum; you may be able to resolve things amicably. It’s possible that there was simply an error in judgement rather than any malicious intent. ---
**Author:** ![Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rudi_C)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 1:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/aaron-bedra-relevance-inc-fraudulently-claiming-ownership-of-bsd-licensed-code-how-to-protect/154490/4 "2008-12-01T13:02:00Z")
Rudi, I started researching Ruby MPI just to see what was available. The code I found must have been the outdated version. I have been contributing to opensource software for more than 8 years and would never intentionally remove anyones efforts or history and hard work on a project. I would be more than happy to work with you on getting the latest bits merged into the repository on GitHub and getting the proper credits in place. Please feel free to contact me off list and we can chat about it. I would also be more than happy to add you as a collaborator on the GitHub repo if you are interested. I would love to have your feedback on progress going forward since you have been involved with the project from what seems to be the start of it. Cheers, Aaron ---
**Author:** ![Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Rudi\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rudi_C)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/aaron-bedra-relevance-inc-fraudulently-claiming-ownership-of-bsd-licensed-code-how-to-protect/154490/5 "2008-12-01T12:42:33Z")
Thank you for pointing out that at least there was mention of Emil in the COPYRIGHT file that Aaron distributed; that is better than nothing. It gave me sufficient cause to investigate in greater detail what has happened. I am now happy to report that I found one of the critical bug fixing lines that is in mpi\_ruby version 0.4 (when I started contributing) but not in Aaron’s fork of the project. (line 68, mpi\_request.c) This implies that Aaron did not intentionally remove my name, but instead just started with a an old version of the project that I inherited from Emil rather than starting with the updated version that includes critical bug fixes. If we try Google searching the single word “mpiruby”: This returns for me, on my first hit at the top, the “main” MPIRuby page as I understood it for the last ten years: > **[Best Open Source Mac Software Development Software 2023](https://sourceforge.net/directory/software-development/mac/)** > > Compare the best free open source Mac Software Development Software at SourceForge. Free, secure and fast Mac Software Development Software downloads from the largest Open Source applications and software directory The fist main-pane project related link is here: [http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/mpi\_ruby/](http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/mpi_ruby/) This gives the accurate history of the project as far as I recall. I think probably Aaron and Relevance were actually honest about this all along (contrary to my earlier implications) but were also a bit remiss for not websearching enough. I was just told about this this morning and the email made it sound like more of an intentional mistake; I now disagree with this position (copied below) and consider it simply a fork off an out of date version. I would like to suggest that we move forward by first having Aaron try to merge in all his improvements to mpi\_ruby 0.3 into 0.4 branch and make the bigger copyright notice that includes my name too as well as his and Emil’s. Then, let’s list Emil, Rudi and Aaron as AUTHORS. If we can do that then I am happy to give my blessing to Aaron and Relevance to “officially” inherit the project and I will also forward you the unprocessed patches in my email box. Best regards and sorry for the hasty implication, Rudi P.S. Here is the email Bruno sent me that made me think it was intentional before. –Bruno Azisaka Maciel to cilibrar show details Nov 28 (2 days ago) Hey man! The Ruby MPI project still alive? The lastest new was published on 2003. I’ve found a fork of your project on GitHub ([GitHub - abedra/mpi-ruby: MPI Ruby Bindings](http://github.com/abedra/mpi-ruby/tree/master)), but he, shameless, overwrited your copywrite. I would like to contribute to your project. If the project is still alive let me know. Regards Bruno Azisaka Maciel