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Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

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

#471

Post by weaksauce »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #420
smnrchrds wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: be afraid of lawyers. They may not be able to win s judgment against you, but they can easily bankrupt you. Remember the case where a man criticized Proctorio and was hit with a SLAPP lawsuit aimed to silence him. He ended up spending 100k on legal costs and the case is only beginning. He would have been bankrupt despite being 100% legally in the right. Fortunately for him, EFF decided to support him af…

It goes both ways. Imagine Replit’s attorney going after OP. If OP didn’t take down the site, then suing them is going to be a huge expense & waste of time. Is Replit really gonna pay some corporate attorney $600-ish per hour to harass someone? You don’t even need a lawyer to show up in court and say “I’m a broke ass new grad, and these guys are trying to take down my website. I don’t even know why, but I’m dragging…

This is dangerous advice if the lawyer fees get paid by the loser of the suit like they do in some cases. ianal but i'd look into that before taking this tactic.

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

#472

Post by abricot »

CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #165
abricot wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you not get the part about him being an intern. Everything you write would apply for someone on vp level with opportunities and stock option. Get down from there.

What do stock options have to do with anything? The engineers (interns or not) working on the code base are more capable of copying the product that a VP who can't write software. A VP would be capable of stealing employees, connections, or clients from the company, which (at least compared to this case) would be much more damaging, sure, but that's just a strawman you created to detract from OP's argument, which is…

What does copying the code base have at all to do with this situation? Who are now creating a straw man argument?

We're not talking about IP. The company had nothing technical that the writer stole from them.

What he did was not even comparable as a product to what they created!

"the ethics of trying to open source a similar project to your old employers product is morally ambiguous at best" would have applied if he had made a product at all!

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

#473

Post by [deleted] »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #432
codingdave wrote: post #111

> Naturally, I took down my project right away... So a CEO bullied you. He threatened to have lawyers look at something, accused you of behaving poorly, and accused you of being difficult. He is being manipulative. He is trying to guilt / scare you into stopping. And it worked. For all readers... do not be afraid of lawyers. Especially if nobody has even talked to them yet. Lawyers do not like to lose cases, so will…

> if your own lawyer believes they have a case By this point, you have already lost (hundreds or thousands of dollars of lawyer fees and possibly countless sleepless nights). "Stop letting people be bullies" is unfortunately hard unless you are sure that you can afford the cost.

[deleted]

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

#474

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

mypalmike wrote: post #425
jfrunyon wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It only becomes meaningful if and when ... your own lawyer believes they have a case That is true, but most people don't have their "own lawyer" to ask.

Is not too difficult to find a decent employment or IP lawyer to spend an hour with you for a few hundred dollars to go over a document and advise you on how to respond.

A few hundred dollars? For a new grad that is a ton of money!

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

#475

Post by daniel-thompson »

CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #165
abricot wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you not get the part about him being an intern. Everything you write would apply for someone on vp level with opportunities and stock option. Get down from there.

What do stock options have to do with anything? The engineers (interns or not) working on the code base are more capable of copying the product that a VP who can't write software. A VP would be capable of stealing employees, connections, or clients from the company, which (at least compared to this case) would be much more damaging, sure, but that's just a strawman you created to detract from OP's argument, which is…

> the ethics of trying to open source a similar project to your old employers product is morally ambiguous at best

I don't think it's bad at all, considering replit is itself built on open-source software, and the CEO is a loud champion of open-source software, and the intern's project only explores one relatively small aspect (number of languages supported) of the problem space while purposefully ignoring all the other stuff necessary to build a competing product

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

#477

Post by _lx4l »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #95

Vote me down, but Ycombinator: "It's all about the founders blah blah blah" - if their process finds and funds these kind of people, the process is broken. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/repl-it

Having just experienced my first "brain rape" from a recent YC grad I concur. The behavior of Amjad is similar to what I experienced interviewing (and apparently performing free consulting) with the company I was just speaking with.

Maybe these situations are not the norm, but they are certainly happening.

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

#478

Post by jjeaff »

MattGaiser wrote: post #193
archibaldJ wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> a level of trust here Trust is destroyed as soon as your first reaction to something is to summon lawyers. I actually somewhat agreed until I read "I will be engaging our lawyers on Monday if it is still up by then."

Nothing worse than petty threats in corporate speak. He must be serious since he was planning to engage with his lawyers rather than just circle back with them.

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

#479

Post by seoaeu »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #183
archibaldJ wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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) I don’t get what you’re saying here. It’s not a breach of trust to speak publicly about someone threatening legal action against you.

If fact, most people would probably consider threatening legal action to be forfeiting any trust the two might previously have had.

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

#480

Post by jahewson »

CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #165
abricot wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you not get the part about him being an intern. Everything you write would apply for someone on vp level with opportunities and stock option. Get down from there.

What do stock options have to do with anything? The engineers (interns or not) working on the code base are more capable of copying the product that a VP who can't write software. A VP would be capable of stealing employees, connections, or clients from the company, which (at least compared to this case) would be much more damaging, sure, but that's just a strawman you created to detract from OP's argument, which is…

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