Have you heard the question "Is this a feature or a product?"
When you see something that is put together by less than 6 people in a 24hr to 3 months how much there is really there? Less than a single person year's worth of work. Look at more durable companies, they are more like 100 person years of work. So you build something with two decimal orders of magnitude more challenge, it is harder to clone.
I completely agree that copying the Javascript off a site and hosting your own version on AWS or some other service is really sleezy. Just like painting the same mural as the guy across the street, making the same dishes as the restaurant down the street, Etc. But it is the nature of things that if you can easily copy it, well there will be copies made. Go for the concept that requires a bit more setup.
As an entrepreneur, expect to be cloned. People will see what you've done, they will copy it, fight that by being on the 'next' thing as the current one releases. Following a fast moving company that executes well is really really really hard.
I'm not going to comment too much on the ethical dilemmas of this behavior but I think it is a symptom of the changing dynamic of the productization of the web.
The consumer products on the web (in the larger sense.. apps etc) seem to be moving more towards bite-size, disposable bits that attract attention by being somehow notable or sensational. Additionally, it seems like the half life of successful products are shortening over time as well. In other words, app development is moving more towards the movie and music industry model and less towards the types of business models seen in most hard science-based industries. A lot of this is enabled at least somewhat by tools that make it quicker and easier to build 'stuff' although I'd still say web application development is somewhat of a mess (but getting better).
I see the long term trajectory being that eventually putting certain types of apps together will be very accessible to semi-technical people and will become relatively low effort. In essence, think Excel for apps that covers 90% of typical use cases (CRUD, etc.) (Note: this is not an argument that technical people will become obsolete - we will move onto the next challenge) As this comes more and more to fruition I think many will see applications as being ephemeral and relatively disposable, and consequently (as much as it pains me to say it), the acceptance and occurrence of copying features and design will continue to go up.
Lastly, while the complaints about copying are valid and I personally find it pretty despicable, investors and entrepreneurs should know that this is a risk in competing in this space. Its getting easier to copy. There will continue to be more and more jackasses that take advantage of it due to better tools. If you want to mitigate the risk, focus on tough technical challenges.
Some guy is selling oranges on the corner one day. He congratulates himself on his entrepreneurship. A few days pass and suddenly a lady across the street is selling oranges. The guy cries foul. How seriously would you take this?
sorry.. but you are comparing apps to oranges (damn I thought that was funny). The difference is that neither the guy or the lady have developed/invented/created/whatever the oranges. If the guy is selling some hybrid or genetically modified version and the lady come in with some of the stolen tech, then I would take that seriously.
Sorry, but you're not getting my point. Most of the whining about "stolen tech" is by people who delude themselves into believing that they have created unique value when they haven't. It's easy to test: Can people easily copy what you've done? Do your barriers to entry consist of more than some theoretical IP that would be murky at best to defend in court? Would the cost of defending your IP put you out of business?
Well... many people delude themselves into believing that they are free to take what they want. But both of us have made broad sweeping statements in opposite directions. Neither of us is right. And I assume neither of us is a lawyer either. :)
When you see something that is put together by less than 6 people in a 24hr to 3 months how much there is really there? Less than a single person year's worth of work. Look at more durable companies, they are more like 100 person years of work. So you build something with two decimal orders of magnitude more challenge, it is harder to clone.
I completely agree that copying the Javascript off a site and hosting your own version on AWS or some other service is really sleezy. Just like painting the same mural as the guy across the street, making the same dishes as the restaurant down the street, Etc. But it is the nature of things that if you can easily copy it, well there will be copies made. Go for the concept that requires a bit more setup.
As an entrepreneur, expect to be cloned. People will see what you've done, they will copy it, fight that by being on the 'next' thing as the current one releases. Following a fast moving company that executes well is really really really hard.