Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project • Hacker News Board

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#311

Post by djur » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

brabel wrote: post #203

yellow_lead wrote: post #3

A fancy funded company like Replit getting scared by an intern's weekend project is entertaining. If your moat is so low it can be replicated in a few days, I think this open source project is the least of their worries.

Agreed... but the intern is obviously incredibly naive in thinking that repl.it would be happy to see one of their ex-interns working on a project that does pretty much the same kind of thing they're doing... whether or not this is a threat to them right now. There's a tiny, but non-zero chance, that this project could become successful and who knows, take marketshare from repl.it... and while everyone is pretending…

> how is that not at least "stealing the idea"??

Because Replit didn't originate the idea of "web site you can execute code on". There's no idea to be stolen here, or if there was stealing, it's not from Replit.

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#312

Post by boothrowaway » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #270

risyachka wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kinda funny how their CEO writes on Twitter all the time that they are the best company in the world, with the best product, do most innovations in tech etc and 10 minutes later he is threatened by a small open-source project that wasn't even created to compete.

Yeah - I don't really like piling on, but Replit and Roam both give off massive alarms for me regarding the founders. Both seem to think they're Xerox PARC - or the most ambitious software companies on earth, both products seem pretty underwhelming. Just seems wildly disproportionate to what they're doing. At least Steve Jobs was actually building stuff that was revolutionary. Elon Musk is building reusable rockets a…

Word on the street is that the Roam founder Conan is also getting pushed out for dehumanizing women and abusing meth, and being a general jackass. Silicon Valley has the best culture.

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#313

Post by samatman » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #78

Guys, I don’t know what this is about yet, but I know amjad (ceo). And I know that whatever is going on here, his intentions were pure. He’s proven himself to me that he’s pretty much the opposite of a sleezy corporate ceo who crushes intern side projects while twirling his mustache. I just wanted to encourage everybody to chill on it for a moment and wait to see what’s up, because my spidey senses are screaming “mis…

This doesn't look to me like one of those cases where new information is going to come to light.

Nor do I want to commit the fundamental attribution error, like 80% of this thread. Even though there are a few other people offering personal experiences of Amjad rubbing them the wrong way. That tends to happen in a thread of this character.

Here's my best guess: your friend had a bad day and fucked up. Then he doubled down, and now it's out in the open.

Good news is, this is salvageable. He's not getting MeTooed, he didn't embezzle money or steal code. He got paranoid and bullied a former intern.

I think a simple apology and some self reflection would go a long way here. There will always be a mob which takes that as blood in the water, and will say awful things on Twitter. But the bulk of the community, the people who matter, will notice, and accept it if it's sincere.

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#314

Post by zemo » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #269

If I were the CEO in this position, I would make sure the intern had shares/stock options as part of their comp, and my reply would be: "Hi X,. It looks like a very cool project, but I'm slightly concerned that it's existence could hurt repl.it. And as shareholders, that could hurt both of us. Let me know if you want a video call to discuss further. X"

I seriously doubt he has any equity, he worked there for four months; most equity contracts have a one-year cliff.

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#315

Post by thefunnyman » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

orliesaurus wrote: post #8

That's really shitty. I wonder what the founders of Replit have to say about this? They're active on HN so I hope they can address this publicly... EDIT: I mean the screenshots are irrefutable evidence of how bad this has escalated - it started as a normal convo and went downwards like the CEO was out to get some blood for no reason ... now I guess you're gonna get a lawyer threat letter to take down the whole blogpo…

Their silence on this matter speaks volumes. I’ve seen the Replit founders comment on just about every other HN post that pops up regarding their company so it’s quite surprising that they’ve made no comment here. Very curious to hear the other side of the story if there is one.

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#316

Post by wutbrodo » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

archibaldJ wrote: post #157

whymauri wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They offered to hire him before insinuating he was a bad/demanding intern, as well. This is standard manipulative behavior and has little benefit to anyone besides attempting to make the intern feel bad. This isn't the first time I've seen a founder resort to this exact type of behavior before threatening legal action.

I would play devil's advocate here and say that the situation is probably muddier than it is presented in the blog. Also there appers to be a level of trust here (at least the Replit CEO trusted that OP will not make this go viral on HN and spiral into a PR nightmare I suppose, which though is the most entertaining path it can take) Not sure how talented OP is. This can as well be a case study of who not to hire.

It's not the whole picture, but the article links to the full email exchange. It's difficult for me to imagine what missing information would lead to the CEO's messages being appropriate.

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#317

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#318

Post by teddyh » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

pcmaffey wrote: post #152

risyachka wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kinda funny how their CEO writes on Twitter all the time that they are the best company in the world, with the best product, do most innovations in tech etc and 10 minutes later he is threatened by a small open-source project that wasn't even created to compete.

He blocked me on Twitter for pointing out something (technical) he said was wrong, and then he deleted his tweet. Told me everything I need to know about that guy.

Link to your tweet, please?

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#319

Post by codegeek » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

Am I missing something ? You interned at a small company and then you built a very similar open source tool which is close to the core product they offer ? Whether the CEO is an asshole or not, I can't think of not agreeing with them here. Your "intentions" don't matter. If your work is very similar to your previous employer's , they have the right to ask you to take it down or come after you.

Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

#320

Post by danso » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

I definitely agree the CEO could've handled this better, in a way that wouldn't bring the Streisand effect down on him. But I also don't fault him for being suspicious when a former intern creates something that seemingly uses the same ideas and concepts that the intern directly worked on while at Replit. Even if the author's assertions (about not using any proprietary knowledge gained as an intern) are all 100% true — the CEO is supposed to take those claims at face value?

Also, the author's full email [0] doesn't do him many favors; for a discussion of a project that purportedly consists completely of open-source and public ideas, there are a ton of redactions. Like:

> "You're right that the existence of ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ was initially brought to my attention by my work at Repl.it. But then again, it also shows up on lists of popular ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ for JavaScript."

I'm not a lawyer, but I simply just would not have written that first sentence. Hopefully ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ is something like "React.js", and the author is just being overly zealous in the light of Replit's legal threats.

[0] https://imgur.com/a/OaEOwu2