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

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

#11

Post by floren » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

gavinray wrote: post #2

Why did you take it down? And why did you apologize? I think the threat to sue was posturing, the same way that legal charges are always trumped up to get you to accept a plea. If you had let them see it through, and they intended to sue you, you could have churned up a horror-inducing PR nightmare of a shitstorm for them. If someone is really as petty to light cash on fire suing a young person with no assets over ba…

Unless I was sure the EFF or similar organization was ready to take me on pro bono, I'd do a lot to avoid the Corporate Nuisance Lawsuit Cannon. A fun evening project isn't worth years in court and hundreds of thousands spent on legal fees--and Replit knows this.

Hopefully by publicizing what happened, he might get an offer for legal defense if necessary, then reinstate the project.

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

#12

Post by dimgl » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

Yeah, not sure about this one chief. I don't know the legal aspects here, but I think it makes sense to not create an open-source project that competes with your previous employer and then correspond with them letting them know you did it...

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

#13

Post by stuff4ben » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

Kind of a shitty thing to do by that company. So much for embracing open source. And probably they don't have a real business case to begin with if they're threatened by a former intern's open source project. Likely scared they'll lose their funding once the investors see how weak they are.

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

#14

Post by reitanuki » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

Historically, you didn't need an account to use Repl.it. It used to be one of the best sites to go to for this kind of thing.

After they added the account requirement and seeing this blog post, I think I'll have to change my opinion about them.

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

#15

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

YorickPeterse wrote: post #4

gavinray wrote: post #2

Why did you take it down? And why did you apologize? I think the threat to sue was posturing, the same way that legal charges are always trumped up to get you to accept a plea. If you had let them see it through, and they intended to sue you, you could have churned up a horror-inducing PR nightmare of a shitstorm for them. If someone is really as petty to light cash on fire suing a young person with no assets over ba…

The premise of being sued should be enough to scare most people, whether they are right or wrong. As such it's not surprising.

[deleted]

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

#16

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:26 PM UTC

YorickPeterse wrote: post #4

gavinray wrote: post #2

Why did you take it down? And why did you apologize? I think the threat to sue was posturing, the same way that legal charges are always trumped up to get you to accept a plea. If you had let them see it through, and they intended to sue you, you could have churned up a horror-inducing PR nightmare of a shitstorm for them. If someone is really as petty to light cash on fire suing a young person with no assets over ba…

The premise of being sued should be enough to scare most people, whether they are right or wrong. As such it's not surprising.

The email didn't say suing. It just said he was going to talk to his lawyers. Just wait for a cease and desist. If someone can replicate you code and maintain it as an OSS project, there is absolutely no way that wouldn't be the lawyers first step. I'm not shaming him cause that's still scary, but this is a just another CEO thinking they can do what they want.

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

#17

Post by etherio » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:26 PM UTC

Wow... This is really disappointing on Replit's part, especially considering the company's emphasis on an ideal of developer empowerment / creativity / collaboration, this seems very excessive.

I hope there's more to this story than it seems, because Replit has been doing lots of good work and this would lower my faith in them...

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

#18

Post by kazinator » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:26 PM UTC

I don't think there is any fundamentally original idea in replit.

It is a time-sharing system where you can log in and use a programming language.

We have had those since not long after the dawn of computing.

Since at least 1970, we also had smart terminals that allowed the user to fill in a form, and validate it, before sending it to the host.

So the time-sharing session being carried out by a protocol between the web front end and back-end is not ipso facto original.

Needless to say, neither is the idea of a repl running in a separate process that provides editing, with expressions sent out to a running image for evaluation.

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

#19

Post by npv789 » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:26 PM UTC

what a shame replit!!

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

#20

Post by sitzkrieg » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 4:27 PM UTC

dimgl wrote: post #12

Yeah, not sure about this one chief. I don't know the legal aspects here, but I think it makes sense to not create an open-source project that competes with your previous employer and then correspond with them letting them know you did it...

this is not reddit