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Posted by semanser 8 hours ago

Adafruit Receives Demand Letter from Fenwick Legal Counsel on Behalf of Flux.ai(blog.adafruit.com)
450 points | 178 commentspage 2
taf2 3 hours ago|
I wanted to love flux.ai because i love codex... and if i could automate the creation of some PCB projects with as much success as I am with codex it would have been quiet fun in the shop... so i gave them a $100~ bucks and i got like nothing in return so I decided i'd wait and see... sounds like it has not improved.
reactordev 6 hours ago||
Struck a nerve, but I wouldn’t back down. If they do take you to court, there’s this wonderful thing called discovery.
fn-mote 3 hours ago||
I was surprised they didn't publish the text of the demand letter verbatim.
pavel_lishin 4 hours ago||
> Adafruit accessed only information that Flux’s own systems made publicly available through a server misconfiguration

Does anyone have some more context about what happened here? An uncharitable analogy might be that I misconfigured my front door by not locking it, which doesn't give someone the right to walk in and look around - but I have no idea what Adafruit is specifically being accused of doing.

russdill 1 hour ago||
It certainly doesn't look like they've publicly released anything. My guess is they found a problem and have been following reasonable responsible disclosure guidelines. However, the 90 days (or whatever time limit was given) is likely expiring and to head off publication, flux.ai is getting lawyers involved.

This is all 100% speculation, just based on checking the archive sites and search sites historical data and finding nothing.

dghlsakjg 2 hours ago|||
what about if I knock on the door (send an http request), and someone comes to it and hands me a bunch of documents (sends an http response with data).
redsocksfan45 2 hours ago||
[dead]
mindslight 3 hours ago|||
It often does when your front door is otherwise a business storefront. Without knowing the specifics of what was accessed, analogies really aren't helpful. And there seems to be zero context here, so this strikes me as the most plausible scenario: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48368635

(I agree that Adafruit's statement itself is worded pretty terribly!)

UqWBcuFx6NV4r 3 hours ago||
That isn’t legal in most jurisdictions either. You’re not a lawyer.
somewhatgoated 2 hours ago||
What isn’t legal? Cant really square your comment with GP comment.
kasabali 7 hours ago||
What's the context here?
Neil44 7 hours ago||
It seems there's suspiciously little context available, yet here I also am commenting on a 'vaguepost'. I wonder if one day AI will be able to filter out vagueposts from my browser along with ragebait and curiosity gap headlines.
somewhatgoated 2 hours ago|||
Idk now that there are bunch of comments on the thread it’s vastly more interesting.
abirch 7 hours ago||||
If AI does that it’ll make us 10x readers
alexfoo 6 hours ago||
Indeed, however:

    10 x 0.1 = 1
pavel_lishin 4 hours ago||
Bold of you to assume my reading ability is that high.
throw_a_grenade 7 hours ago|||
It's deliberately written that way, by lawyers who are making sure they (Adafruit) won't accidentaly admit to something they didn't.
Neywiny 7 hours ago||
Best I can tell they've taken down whatever it was, but most likely flux left some ways to get data out of their system that shouldn't have been and Adafruit leveraged that. Could have been in a good way like exposing false claims of architecture or security, or a bad way like revealing proprietary information on how the platform worked or looking at other peoples' projects (more than just seeing they could do that). If the blog doesn't come back up, I'll kinda assume they did something bad. I don't have sources but I've heard adafruit isn't the sweetest fruit in the tree...
yodon 6 hours ago||
> Adafruit’s reporting concerns a matter of public security interest and was conducted in the ordinary course of responsible disclosure
looneysquash 2 hours ago||
I love the transparency that Adafruit is proving on this.
raphman 6 hours ago||
Never heard of Flux.ai before. It seems to be a 3D circuit designer with 'AI'.

Not sure what the issue between them and Adafruit is. However, people over on Reddit¹ claim that Flux.ai is a little bit scummy. They push users into a beginner trial ($5/month) and then silently charge for usage per token - up to $100 per month.

Oh, they also claim that they have "the world's largest community-driven public library of Adafruit products, including footprints, symbols, datasheets, and simulation models"². I wonder whether they designed these themselves or whether they use existing ones. Could not easily find licenses info.

¹) https://www.reddit.com/r/PCB/comments/18o5zfo/thoughts_on_fl...

²) https://www.flux.ai/sitemap/manufacturers/adafruit

gowld 1 hour ago|
Flux.ai is abusing Adafruit's trademark while harassing Adafruit with a lawsuit. Wow!
Mr_Eri_Atlov 5 hours ago||
I previously had a passing interest in Flux, now I'm certain it's a fraud.
Falimonda 6 hours ago|
Had anyone tried AutoPCB (https://autopcb.app/) instead?

Seems especially useful when paired with an agentic coding tool!

pftburger 6 hours ago|
Yep, and it’s terrible

Not only did it burn a 100$ failing but it did so in a very untransparent way.

I bought a 20 dollar plan but they snuck a 100$ billed usage into the billing agreements next thing I know the agent as used the quote going in circles and my card is billed.

reactordev 4 hours ago|||
We need outcome based billing...

I don't want to pay for a service that doesn't deliver.

elevation 2 hours ago||
> We need outcome based billing... I don't want to pay for a service that doesn't deliver.

You can already do this: hire a consultancy to build you a working deliverable for a fixed price. They will be incentivized to prompt their tools well and to avoid tools that are consistently pathological.

somewhatgoated 2 hours ago||
They will also charge a lot more than you using the service if they aren’t charlatans

Edit: actually they probably will charge even more if they are charlatans

trollbridge 4 hours ago|||
I’m so sick of this that I go to the trouble to set up prepaid cards to pay for these things now.

A handful of honest participants like DeepSeek are pay as you go instead of trying to sneakily bill you for usage.

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