Seb MolinesMar 9
June

"The most wildly successful project I’ve ever released is no longer mine. In all my years of building things and sharing them online, I have never felt so violated."

https://beyondloom.com/blog/onwigglypaint.html

Edit: I am not the author of this. Please go check out https://beyondloom.com/ for more of the author's work.

Mar 7 at 5:16pmWeb
Show threadDevine Lu LinvegaMar 7
@june damn, that super sucks 
Show threadJuneMar 7

@neauoire we should show them some support.

https://internet-janitor.itch.io/wigglypaint/devlog/1449946/please-dont-fall-for-scams

Please don't fall for scams! - Wigglypaint by Internet Janitor

I recently published an article on my personal blog about the history of WigglyPaint, how it works internally, and my feelings regarding the flood of unscrupulous websites and mobile apps which have s...

itch.io
Show threadinscriptMar 7
@june @neauoire oh no! john is great. they don't deserve that!
Show threadcancelMar 10
@inscript @june @neauoire If I was in that position, I would have sent out DMCA letters. Most of the slopists use USA or multi-national hosting that has to obey it, and DMCA letters are pretty low-effort.
Show thread... and and and and ...Mar 7
@june Man this sucks. Only things LLMs have revolutionized is how fast a bad actor can flip someone else's idea 
Show threadमोक्ष / untrusem ⁂Mar 7

@june Its must be heart wrenching seeing your creation getting destroyed by these people who don't have even a ounce of care for what the consequences of their actions are.

And WigglyPaint, is such a beautiful program, those sound effects when you select something, the *boom* when you obliterate something. I felt joy when I used that.

Show threadKhleedrilMar 8

@june It totally is still yours. As long as you have the itch.io page and the original sources, that cannot be taken away from you. Others might use obscure wording to get around shit, but you are the only one who can outright say 'I did this.'

BTW I never heard of it before, and now I do, I LOVE IT!

Show threadscolobbMar 8
@june "This is what LLMs are best at: quickly fabricating plausible simulacra of real objects to mislead the unwary."

Great summary!
Show threadJuneMar 8
@scolobb John Earnest's writing never fails to satisfy. :)
Beyond Loom

Show threadjohnny anhedonicMar 8
@june
“capitalism rewards innovation,” they say.
this is the innovation captialism rewards.
Show threadAsternovaceaMar 9
@june parasites, despicable
Show threadmillennial fulcrumMar 9

@june one part of that last statement is false. the property is the property of the owner. theft is not ownership, that is just not how that works.

why not just find them, farm them, and harm them? it would be satisfying, I guarantee it, to locate the identity thieves, put them through the legal apparatus and, after that process is done, to work them over in person to completion.

the other route, letting evil win, is a choice.
but that is a stupid choice.

Show threadMalus is here nowMar 9
@falcennial @june
you definitely haven't actually read the post if this is your takeaway. it's not about intellectual property at all, it's about the total lack of integrity of the people generating these ripoff sites, and the loss of opportunity for the end user.
Show threadtoerrorMar 9
@falcennial @june If you specialise in that work, maybe, and I suspect the new world will have a lot of it for practitioners.
Maybe copyright trolls are the Robin Hood we always needed after all.
Show threadmana 🍥Mar 9
@june truly upsetting
Show threadBenjohnMar 9
@june I’m really sorry about that. Thank you for making something lovely. And also thanks for the mention of decker, it sounds also very interesting.
Show threadadingbatponder  👾Mar 9
@june Users need to be more discerning. Surely the real #wigglypaint can be recognised somehow?
Show threadparlaptieMar 9
@adingbatponder @june If you just heard the name wiggly paint and searched for it, how are you supposed to know that the only legit result is the one on itch.io?
Show threadMiffMar 9
@june This is why paint.net went closed source.
Show threadIva HornMar 9
@june A new kind of piracy. 😞
Show threadyaoi gagarinMar 9
@june I've seen similar things happen in other spaces. Some dipshit is running around creating .com domains for Quake source ports with slop websites and "blogs" full of ad posts
Show threadyaoi gagarinMar 9

@june the annoying thing of course is that this isn't necessarily something that you'd need LLMs for, but they've certainly lowered the barrier to entry on this kind of grift.

it's depressing, I'm not sure what an actual solution would be other than kicking the people responsible in the balls until they learn to be decent human beings

Show threadVANTABlackMar 9
@june That's sad to hear. I remember a friend of mine a while back having fun with WigglyPaint.
Show threadBruce Walzer 🇨🇦Mar 9

@june This makes me wonder if this sort of bad behaviour is covered by an author's moral rights:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights

Moral rights - Wikipedia

Show threadAndrejMar 9
@june @davidgerard
Show threadfedithomMar 9

@june

God damn. That goes on my list.
https://social.saarland/@fedithom/112455121136790239

I am SO sorry this is happening to you (though not terribly surprised)

fedithom (@[email protected])

Fuck AI New: https://social.nouveau.community/@june/116189020908193236 --- https://insinuator.net/2025/09/stealing-emails-via-prompt-injections/ https://flausch.social/@piegames/114352447253793517 https://pod.geraspora.de/posts/17342163 https://pivot-to-ai.com/2024/11/30/meet-the-underpaid-workers-in-nairobi-kenya-who-power-openai/ https://www.codastory.com/stayonthestory/nursing-ai-hospitals-robots-capture/ https://tante.cc/2024/04/22/ai-as-support-systems-for-diagnostics/ https://social.saarland/@fedithom/112797547775951493 https://jascha.wtf/blogmojo-ai-plagiat-im-jahr-2023-wenn-kuenstliche-intelligenz-texte-klaut/ https://chaos.social/@leah/112871670828981320 https://mastodon.green/@akshatrathi/112445979071434307 https://danmcquillan.org/chatgpt.html https://www.brusselstimes.com/world-all-news/1042696/chatgpt-consumes-25-times-more-energy-than-google https://www.vox.com/climate/2024/3/28/24111721/ai-uses-a-lot-of-energy-experts-expect-it-to-double-in-just-a-few-years https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/15/they-trust-me-dumb-fucks/#ai-search https://www.takahe.org.nz/heat-death-of-the-internet/ https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/for-tech-ceos-the-dystopia-is-the + eigentlich alles von https://tante.cc/

social.saarland
Show threadzooopnirMar 9
@june
TIL about Decker, a living love letter to Hypercard https://internet-janitor.itch.io/decker
Decker by Internet Janitor

A multimedia sketchbook

itch.io
Show threadRuchira S. DattaMar 9
@june People can read more about the actual author John Earnest: https://beyondloom.com/about/index.html He would be pleased if fans of WigglyPaint also check out his other stuff.
Show threadMattChippyteaMar 9
@june my first reaction was the nedroid.com cartoon… but really this is just theft, folk stealing donations to someone else’s project.
Show threadEwen Bell 📸Mar 9
@june

That is the saddest thing I've read for weeks that didn't involve the orange clown.
Show threadBeing Left Behind EnjoyerMar 9
@june "People who extract from the world instead of contributing to it."
Show threadIt's RichieMar 10

Wiggly Paint is amazing ✨

Read this gut renching post by @june

#WigglyPaint

Show threadPete / SyllopsiumMar 10

@june

I understand they're upset, but most sympathy evaporates once the itch.io page is checked.

"Code license MIT License"

The other people are doing what the license permits them to do. Don't like that? don't use that license

The FreeBSD people did not wail and gnash their teeth when Sony took the source and used it to create their OS, they were glad their code was used.

There is the implied expectation that ideally you contribute back as well, but it's not essential, that's why there's no limits.

Show threadgloriouscowMar 11

@syllopsium @june

Its sort of worse than that too since they released all the assets as CC0 which means completely public domain with no required attribution.

This is a case of a developer not understanding the terms of their own chosen licenses.

I think they retain the rights to the Wigglypaint name, and if sites aren't giving them attribution for their code authorship that still sucks.

Show threadChris [list of emoji]Mar 10

@june

I had not heard of wigglypaint but I've heard of John Earnest before and he's done some incredibly cool things. Notable are:

- Decker (https://beyondloom.com/decker/index.html), a quasi-recreation of 80s Hypercard; wigglypaint was (AFAIK) written in it.

- ok, (https://johnearnest.github.io/ok/index.html) an interpreter for the `k` language in Javascript. (`k` is a proprietary language that's kind of a melding of Lisp and APL; I keep meaning to learn it to see if it's as terrible as it sounds.)

Show threadChris [list of emoji]Mar 10

@june

Anyway, everyone should check out his stuff. There's a lot of awesomeness there.

Show threadSonikku6d ago

@june

“ LLMs are sharp tools in the hands of plagiarists, con-men, spammers, and everyone who believes that creative expression is worthless. People who extract from the world instead of contributing to it.”

The saddest part is that this also applies to big businesses like the one I embarrassingly work for

Show threadbug // june5d ago
@june I seek freedom from torture, harassment, and enslavement by my lying, theiving, violent pedophile rapist family.
Show threadBruce Simpson, Ph.D.4d ago
@june I strongly suspect GoDaddy have been trying to steal my upcoming brand by front-running a .com domain registration and populating it with AI slop, before I've even started building it. I do not have hard evidence, just strong circumstantial evidence.