> the project blew up quite a bit and gained ~1.5k stars, after that the developers of the antivirus I was using filed a DMCA takedown request
I got really, really confused after that statement, because I don't understand what "the antivirus I was using" means and why they would have a reason to send the author a DMCA.
I think it means the author reverse-engineered another antivirus and put parts of it in their open-source project. But it could also mean other things. Skimming I see a heading with "Impersonating WinDefend".
So is the jist that the author somehow broke some kind of copyright law?
My understanding is he used the carcass of another AV tool to bypass signature requirements which is understandably grey (there's an argument for it being transformative, IMO but IANAL).
yes, they broke copywright law by copying part of an existing AV program.
From the paragraph directly before the one you quoted:
The way how my project worked is that it was using a thirdparty code from some already existing antivirus and forced that av to register the antivirus in WSC.
I got really, really confused after that statement, because I don't understand what "the antivirus I was using" means and why they would have a reason to send the author a DMCA.
I think it means the author reverse-engineered another antivirus and put parts of it in their open-source project. But it could also mean other things. Skimming I see a heading with "Impersonating WinDefend".
So is the jist that the author somehow broke some kind of copyright law?