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How did Replit respond to this blog post?

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Re: How did Replit respond to this blog post?

#61

Post by bitwize »

I fail to see how Amjad was in the wrong in the first place. He is well within his rights to assert copyright, which OP probably violated at least on an SSO level. The only things left to quibble over are how much the infringement was and how it may have affected, or have the potential to affect, Repl.it's business -- matters to be settled in court if both sides do not agree to terms.

Never, ever, EVER release an open-source version of your current or former employer's product. If you do, the employer can establish you had access to their code and they can argue that your work is substantially similar to theirs, meaning THEY CAN AND WILL SUE YOU for copyright infringement.

Re: How did Replit respond to this blog post?

#62

Post by cbsmith »

I think the disappointment in the CEO's response to the blog post is understandable, but I think much of it is a reflection of different contexts.

I'm sure from the information at their disposal, the CEO thinks their IP was stolen, and feels obligated to defend it vigorously. Yes, he did not provide specific claims, but often it considered unwise to be specific in these situations (both when threatening legal action and when backing down). What's described as "misquoting" could be deliberate, but given how all of this seems to be in the context of two parties not communicating effectively, it is far more likely a case where what was heard from the CEO's context was very different from what Radon intended to communicate.

Like I said, I don't begrudge Radon's feelings and perceptions of the situation, and he may well be perceiving things accurately, but with disagreements like this, the norm is that all parties have a distorted perception. I'm just glad it has been resolved without going to court.

Re: How did Replit respond to this blog post?

#63

Post by minimaxir »

swyx wrote: post #53
2bitencryption wrote: post #14

The craziest part, to me, is how the CEO could have expressed his view in a way that would have been much more compelling. "Hey, really cool project. Though honestly, not sure how I feel about a former intern of mine publishing a project that is so similar to what they worked on as an intern. But on that note, we'd be happy to have you back on the team if you want to continue the project with us :) What do you say?"…

not defending his action here at all but the psychology of being a startup founder is interesting here. he couldve "seen this movie before" and jumped to conclusions. he couldve just had a rough day. sometimes you spend entire adult life feeling like the whole world is against you and you lash out without thinking it through. everyone is armchair quarterbacking here on what was the rational thing to do. but we are mo…

> but we are mostly not rational creatures esp when our "babies" are involved.

The difference here is that CEOs are expected to handle things professionally, especially CEOs of a VC-backed startup.

As noted in the previous thread, the "rough day" excuse doesn't fly when you double down and offer legal threats.

Re: How did Replit respond to this blog post?

#64

Post by emc3 »

eh8 wrote: post #5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

> Streisand Effect

Not when someone can banish it from the front page[1]. See this comment timestamp[2] and compare it with the sudden drop in ranking on the upvote tracker chart.

[1] https://upvotetracker.com/post/hn/27437665

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27438258

Re: How did Replit respond to this blog post?

#65

Post by yepthatsreality »

brhsagain wrote: post #49

For those calling Amjad's apology insincere: what would convince you otherwise? He's stated plainly that he did x, x was wrong, and he's sorry for doing x (x being making legal threats and abusing his power). Do you need him to concede his entire point of view 100%? If Riju really did copy repl.it, are you saying he should let that go in order to make a proper apology? Why is that a reasonable demand? I think I see o…

IMO it’s relative to when Amazon uses then forks Elasticsearch. It’s something that happens. The transfer of ideas cannot be stopped because you arrived there first.

The reaction to the situation from the CEO and the reaction to the reaction by the development community are both soaked in cultural faux pas generated out of a few decades of startup-pop-goes-the-weasel.

I’m sure both sides love the untrue misnomer phrase:

It’s not personal, it’s business.

Re: How did Replit respond to this blog post?

#66

Post by nrmitchi »

2bitencryption wrote: post #14

The craziest part, to me, is how the CEO could have expressed his view in a way that would have been much more compelling. "Hey, really cool project. Though honestly, not sure how I feel about a former intern of mine publishing a project that is so similar to what they worked on as an intern. But on that note, we'd be happy to have you back on the team if you want to continue the project with us :) What do you say?"…

I am curious, and I'm curious for many others commenting in these threads; did you read the entire email thread was that posted on imgur (and referenced as "technical details" from the post), or just the content of the original blog post?

I only ask because there is a 3-page (in my opinion, aggressively worded) email response in between "I feel this is unethical" and "legal action". I could see how the content and tone of that particular email could be interpreted in a way that could escalate the situation.

Again, I do not agree with the response here, but it's not as if there wasn't a long email with a fair amount of context in the middle.

Re: How did Replit respond to this blog post?

#68

Post by mkr-hn »

nrmitchi wrote: post #66
2bitencryption wrote: post #14

The craziest part, to me, is how the CEO could have expressed his view in a way that would have been much more compelling. "Hey, really cool project. Though honestly, not sure how I feel about a former intern of mine publishing a project that is so similar to what they worked on as an intern. But on that note, we'd be happy to have you back on the team if you want to continue the project with us :) What do you say?"…

I am curious, and I'm curious for many others commenting in these threads; did you read the entire email thread was that posted on imgur (and referenced as "technical details" from the post), or just the content of the original blog post? I only ask because there is a 3-page (in my opinion, aggressively worded) email response in between "I feel this is unethical" and "legal action". I could see how the content and to…

Three pages of text is a lot to read in images you can't reprocess for accessibility on a site made for viewing images.

Re: How did Replit respond to this blog post?

#69

Post by CheezeIt »

mikepurvis wrote: post #11
artembugara wrote: post #6

"I give you permission to publish Riju". Emm. Really? Since when does he hold such a power?

Yeah I think this should have been "I withdraw my request for you to take it down, and the corresponding threat of legal action if you didn't do so."

That phrasing doesn’t give permission or remove the possibility of future legal action. Giving permission expressly removes that.

Re: How did Replit respond to this blog post?

#70

Post by kemonocode »

A very empty non-apology all in all, and not nearly addressing what Masad did wrong. Very disappointing.

Masad, if you're reading this, get off your high horse. Bullying and scaring people into compliance with lawyers does work, but you pay it dearly in PR, especially when you're working on products oriented towards highly opinionated people.

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