DeviceAtlas, a device detection product owned and operated by Afilias Technologies, has been accused of copying source code from rival 51Degrees – a move which 51Degrees has called “highly unusual”.

The code in question relates to a DeviceAtlas public copy of an open source GitHub repository created and licensed 51Degrees. The copied repository contains code published by 51Degrees during April 2019 to efficiently identify models of Apple iPhone and iPad following the release of iOS 12.2, which rendered previous techniques used to identify Apple models obsolete.

51Degrees made part of its solution publicly available for others to understand its techniques, use the code on their websites, and create a public record of the changes. Before publishing the source code on GitHub, it filed for a patent in the UK. Although, Afilias has not violated any software license or patent in forking 51Degrees.

51Degrees licenses its source code up the Mozilla Public License 2 (MPL2). This license is permissive and allows anyone to use the source code as long as they acknowledge 51Degrees’ contribution in their own licenses and end user agreement.

“It is incredibly flattering to me that Afilias have copied 51Degrees work,” said James Rosewell, CEO and founder of 51Degrees. “To my mind it’s like Oracle copying Microsoft’s .NET open source. DeviceAtlas has suggested a modification to the repository which we will evaluate alongside the modifications already in the works. Perhaps this move signals a willingness to work more closely together on the common goal of better device detection.”

We reached out to Afilias for comment about its intentions and a company spokesperson simply told us: “We are in no way using their code in our products”. We have yet to receive a response to a follow-up asking why the company copied the code with no intentions of using it.

[Update]: Afilias responded to our follow-up, stating: “DeviceAtlas is based on code developed entirely by Afilias Technologies. Afilias is a strong supporter of open source, and occasionally contributes enhancements using the open source community’s well-established protocols. Responsible community members such as Afilias honor this respected system and eagerly contribute improvements where we feel we have something to add.”

Afilias’ DeviceAtlas has previously made use of a competitor’s open products. In 2012, Ronan Cremin, CTO responsible for DeviceAtlas, admitted on a public forum that “DeviceAtlas isnt based on WURFL but we did use data from it in the past”. WURFL was an open source project that has now closed down and been absorbed into ScientiaMobile.

*This article has been updated to include Afilias second statement.