Chrome extension was cloned

[Алексей Бочкарёв]

Hi everyone! 

Few days ago some guy tried to buy my chrome extension, and after told me that he will not do that, cause he cloned my extension.

More than 95% source code was copied, texts, styles, and so on. He even didn't change icon 16x16 (at the moment)

Look at this. My extension:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/likeme/knkmhklfleegnlkapphbjbjnbilijlhf

His extension:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%80-%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD/ldndnnklbiikkgebljfgibikafkgffhn

Can somebody tell me, how I can stop him and block the extension?

Thank in advance!

[David]

I'd be interested in how he was able to clone it. Unless you hack, I don't think you can normally simply extract out the contents of the extension from the web store - whether you install it or not.

At the least, you can contact Google? I don't know if this forum helps for that. There is a "report abuse" link under each extension, which appears to allow you to notify Google about the extension being bad. You could try that option. I would wonder whether your copycat even tried to "report" you for "abuse".

And you could also post a bad review to his extension in the meantime - warning users about the issue. I don't think the author is able to remove reviews, only Google can do that.

[Rajesh Katalkar]

chrome extension can be easily copied after installing it.There's no protection against it .After installing it ,they are actually extracted in users profile directory..The whole source code, images etc. This is true for even FF addons.

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[Shawn Kanyer]

You can view the source code without downloading it. Use crx viewer to do it.

For your issue, report his extension to google for copyright issues.

[Alex Feinstein]

Hello,

Go to their extension and report it using the "report abuse" option. Choose the copyright option and fill out the form. Provide screenshots of both your extension and their extension along with your report. Google will take care of it. 

I had this problem and am thrilled to report that they removed the extension that I reported. It will take them about two weeks to review your report, but it will get done.