Jason Antic

For the way I work there is no reward for sharing my code - I am neither a teacher, not a developer, nor a startup who do benefit from the additional attention a popular repository gives them. My "USP" is that I make things that at least for a short while not many others can do.

And when you die, your work will die with you. Is that really what you want? What do you want out of life? I think about that a lot. Is it really just a rat race until the end? There must be more.

Not sure if you noticed that I make art and my hope is that some of that will still be around when I am gone.

I noticed. I like it a lot. Your code is art too, though, even if you don't seem to think so. I appreciated the way your covid simulator worked.

The code is part of my art. If there was a code of honor in art where plagiarists and copycats are called out, - like for example in stand-up comedy - I would share more. But since even curators and critics in this field get constantly fooled by charlatans I choose obscurity.

Sure, that's fair. But ask yourself: why do you care so much about plagiarists and copycats? They're irrelevant. Everyone knows you made the work first, just like everyone knows @citnaj made deoldify.

I can't fault him! You know I'm keeping the latest code closed source now. I'd feel different about the subject if I felt like there was a way to actually make money and keep this going by open sourcing it. Unfortunately, artificial scarcity is the way to make a living.

Yup. Your mindset is his mindset. And it's worrisome. No one is going to swipe your code and then sell DeOldify without your involvement. The artificial scarcity argument doesn't hold water. It's like worrying someone will kidnap your child.