Redcore lesson: money talks, but not always

THE DEVELOPERS OF REDCORE claimed it to be China’s first self-innovated intelligent browser. But hours after the developers obtained a funding of 250 million yuan ($36.4 million) from the market last month, they were exposed for stealing Google Chrome’s open source code. Science and Technology Daily comments:

Programmers around the world are using the open source code. Although there are no laws prohibiting its use, users must abide by the open source agreement, and maintain the spirit of common contract.

The Redcore developers believed more in bragging about how their product would help the investors earn huge profits in the future, and little in the common contract spirit. By doing so, the developers violated the rules of the game.

Nobody knows how or why they claimed an invention the world already knew very well about. With Google Chrome’s name popping up frequently while installing Redcore, even a layman would doubt their claim.

The developers’ only aim may have been to attract funds. But how could so many venture capital companies be fooled by Redcore, which is nothing but an

amateur counterfeit?

This brings to mind the fake chip innovation in 2005, when a researcher at Shanghai Jiaotong University erased Motorola’s logo from its chips and reprinted on them a new logo comprising the “name” of his government-funded project.

The inflow of huge amounts of investment, and the desire to make money combined with the lack of knowledge about the government and market rules for breakthroughs in key science and technology fields have polluted some professionals’ minds, with some of them betraying the spirit of science and using crooked means to earn instant money and fame.

The authorities therefore should take measures to raise society’s scientific temperament and prevent faux innovators from fooling people to gain instant benefits. The fraudsters should know one thing. Money talks, but not always.