Cooler Master ripped off Fan Control

[StabYourFace]

Skip to 11:09.

 

Fan Control was a solution from an independent developer that blew everything else out of the water from the professional companies at the time. Cooler Master's response has been to shamelessly copy not only the functionality, but even the interface and design where it almost looks 1:1 with Fan Control.

 

I feel this deserves to be called out. If you're not familiar with Fan Control, it was promoted by many in the YouTube tech community over a year ago (I believe JayzTwoCents was the first big one) as a must have fan control software:

 

Compare the interface and functionality and I think this is an example of a big corporation using its muscle to basically steal the ideas of an independent developer that didn't even monetize it, they only asked for donations, as they were releasing something for the better good of the PC community. I think this kind of practice hurts the greater PC community because it demoralizes independent developers from trying to invest their own time and money to make a solution that helps push us forward, because of this kind of inevitable outcome. They could have hired or licensed Fan Control and the developer. But instead they are using the worst tactics to improve their products because they would rather steal, than look inwardly to innovate or incorporate innovative developers. Every time this happens someone with a good idea out there is more likely to go "not worth it," and that hurts us all.
 

[ki8aras]

i know im off topic, but is there a chance this program works on laptops or nah?

(i mean laptops that don't expose fan control settings to the user like the dell xps line)

[Blqckqut]

2 hours ago, StabYourFace said:

Skip to 11:09.

 

Fan Control was a solution from an independent developer that blew everything else out of the water from the professional companies at the time. Cooler Master's response has been to shamelessly copy not only the functionality, but even the interface and design where it almost looks 1:1 with Fan Control.

 

I feel this deserves to be called out. If you're not familiar with Fan Control, it was promoted by many in the YouTube tech community over a year ago (I believe JayzTwoCents was the first big one) as a must have fan control software:

 

Compare the interface and functionality and I think this is an example of a big corporation using its muscle to basically steal the ideas of an independent developer that didn't even monetize it, they only asked for donations, as they were releasing something for the better good of the PC community. I think this kind of practice hurts the greater PC community because it demoralizes independent developers from trying to invest their own time and money to make a solution that helps push us forward, because of this kind of inevitable outcome. They could have hired or licensed Fan Control and the developer. But instead they are using the worst tactics to improve their products because they would rather steal, than look inwardly to innovate or incorporate innovative developers. Every time this happens someone with a good idea out there is more likely to go "not worth it," and that hurts us all.
 

maybe they are working together or its been bought over, we dont know the full story

[StabYourFace]

7 hours ago, Blqckqut said:

maybe they are working together or its been bought over, we dont know the full story

They are saying they developed it entirely themselves, in house. So it would seem not unfortunately.

[Avocado Diaboli]

>Companies suck at making software for their hardware

>People make their own open-source solutions

>Companies see these solutions and notice that they're good ideas

>Companies make their own versions with proper support that isn't just one bedroom programmer addressing bugs when he feels like it

>People get mad that companies make decent software

 

I swear, sometimes people get upset over the stupidest things. Yeah the UI looks similar. Just like every modern app. And what do you expect, not having sensible features that we've seen elsewhere already?

[Timme]

On 6/6/2023 at 8:22 PM, Avocado Diaboli said:

>Companies suck at making software for their hardware

>People make their own open-source solutions

>Companies see these solutions and notice that they're good ideas

>Companies make their own versions with proper support that isn't just one bedroom programmer addressing bugs when he feels like it

>People get mad that companies make decent software

 

I swear, sometimes people get upset over the stupidest things. Yeah the UI looks similar. Just like every modern app. And what do you expect, not having sensible features that we've seen elsewhere already?

Yeah, no big deal. Just a commercial giant appropriating open-source projects instead of creating something in-house. Happens on every corner. ..? No, it's not ok. No, apps from proper companies and developers don't look alike. And in commercial software things like the UI-design are intellectual properties.

[Poinkachu]

I mean... as long CoolerMaster haven't tried to sue or shut FanControl down forcefully, people can just keep using FanControl, no ?

 

In fact, people probably should be glad they (CM) haven't licensed FanControl. If they do, then most likely that software gonna be detecting CM's product only from thereon.

 

Not every software that gets licensed or something works like Afterburner where it simply works with every brand.

[Radium_Angel]

On 6/6/2023 at 3:18 AM, ki8aras said:

i know im off topic, but is there a chance this program works on laptops or nah?

(i mean laptops that don't expose fan control settings to the user like the dell xps line)

Dell hardware is rather difficult, as they (oten) use custom chips that don't talk with Fan COntrol.

All the same, and speaking from experience, it doesn't hurt to install and try. It'll let you know soon enough if it sees your fans or not

[NF-A12x25]

On 6/6/2023 at 1:22 PM, Avocado Diaboli said:

>Companies suck at making software for their hardware

>People make their own open-source solutions

>Companies see these solutions and notice that they're good ideas

>Companies make their own versions with proper support that isn't just one bedroom programmer addressing bugs when he feels like it

>People get mad that companies make decent software

 

I swear, sometimes people get upset over the stupidest things. Yeah the UI looks similar. Just like every modern app. And what do you expect, not having sensible features that we've seen elsewhere already?

yeah no this is not ok, unless they give credit and monetary compensation. IDK if you’re familiar with copyleft, seems you are not, but open-source licenses are not an excuse to plagiarize- they also often only grant permission to use the code or to reuse the code or other materials, including features and GUIs, if credit is given and in SOME cases, depending on how the license is worded, only in an open-source manner by non-corporate entities. They are still licenses and are legally enforceable as such.

[Skiiwee29]

Fan Control was actually started by a member of the forum here LONG LONG LONG before Jayztwocents made a video of it. @Rem0o 

 

 

[Timme]

1 hour ago, Poinkachu said:

I mean... as long CoolerMaster haven't tried to sue or shut FanControl down forcefully, people can just keep using FanControl, no ?

 

In fact, people probably should be glad they (CM) haven't licensed FanControl. If they do, then most likely that software gonna be detecting CM's product only from thereon.

 

Not every software that gets licensed or something works like Afterburner where it simply works with every brand.

Your signature self-replicated.

[Avocado Diaboli]

46 minutes ago, NF-A12x25 said:

yeah no this is not ok, unless they give credit and monetary compensation. IDK if you’re familiar with copyleft, seems you are not, but open-source licenses are not an excuse to plagiarize- they also often only grant permission to use the code or to reuse the code or other materials, including features and GUIs, if credit is given and in SOME cases, depending on how the license is worded, only in an open-source manner by non-corporate entities. They are still licenses and are legally enforceable as such.

You can't legally protect ideas, only implementations of ideas. If Cooler Master copies the functionality with their own implementation, that's perfectly legit. Also, since you can't download MasterControl yet, you haven't seen their acknowledgements. You can start complaining once you have solid evidence of foul play, not just because something is based on a fairly common repo is used in commercial software.

 

As a side-note, I'd advise you don't assume any state of knowledge or use a perceived lack of familiarity with something as an opener to your arguments. You only weaken your argument if you have to preload it with ad hominems.

[NF-A12x25]

16 minutes ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

You can't legally protect ideas, only implementations of ideas. If Cooler Master copies the functionality with their own implementation, that's perfectly legit.

This is partially true. If someone directly copied the windows GUI, for example, and sold their own operating system but with a different source code and logos, just the same GUI and features, it would absolutely be jumped upon by Microsoft lawyers. And they’d probably get screwed in court by said lawyers. But this is more of a might makes right moment.

 

And you can actually patent a GUI (and you can also license parts and in some cases the whole of a GUI through both copyright and copyleft methods, which is separate from patenting as it’s essentially a legally binding contract provided by the software owner and agreed to when using, copying, redistributing, etc., the software)

https://www.patenttrademarkblog.com/gui-design-patent/

 

In addition, I have no evidence of legal foul play, but ethics are separate from the legal system and copying others’ work, even with minor changes, is- I think it’s safe to say- against most peoples’ code of ethics and certainly our current society.

 

 

 

 

[Rem0o]

Hi,

FanControl dev here,

Just saw this.  Indeed the name and overall UI seem similar. Some recognizable names in the industry have contacted me in the last year, but CoolerMaster was not one of them.

Now about the software looking like FanControl, I'm not upset or mad at it. As people said, I didn't create that UI design, just type in "material design dashboard" on google and you'll see.  They just figured out what a good/simple modern layout looks like.

Side note, I *do* have a monetization scheme for FanControl, it's called a donationware.   Since Jay'z video, that amount is non-negligible, but money was never the priority here, it just gives me extra flexibility and motivation to keep on going.

What makes FanControl, well FanControl (IMO, I'm biased), is its feature set and overall premise:

* free
* the hardware support aspect is open-source https://github.com/LibreHardwareMonitor/LibreHardwareMonitor
* plugins: the selection getting better over the year (https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases#plugins)
* minimal design/footprint 100 mb of RAM with UI on, drops to 15-30 with UI off. Next to 0% cpu usage. 
* the "modular" aspect of constructing your config from small building blocks/functions into a complex logic pattern

Right now they seem to be aiming it as a "center hub" for your lightning, cooling, monitoring and so on, kinda like every manufacturer's software right now, so nothing new here. So you can probably forget about the small footprint.  I'd be curious about the cooling feature set, and what kind of hardware support (motherboard fan control, especially) they offer beyond the typical monitoring and their own stuff. Also curious if they will try to make it expandable to import new sensors/hardware into it, and how that plays out. I'll keep a curious eye open. 

That custom image/background look cute though, might be "inspired" by it

[Erioch]

7 minutes ago, Rem0o said:

FanControl dev here

Thank you so much for all of your work.

[Isuck Assimov]

Thought this was about the OG SpeedFan but it's just a newer iteration of that ?

SpeedFan is more than 20 years old damn, probably older than many people in this forum :'D

[LogicalDrm]

2 hours ago, Isuck Assimov said:

Thought this was about the OG SpeedFan but it's just a newer iteration of that ?

SpeedFan is more than 20 years old damn, probably older than many people in this forum :'D

Also it hasn't been developed in almost 10 years. It stopped working reliable with anything newer than Skylake.