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Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

intuitiveexplanations.com

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

#131

Post by abricot »

dimgl wrote: post #61
finger wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t this only hold if you signed a competition clause, and if so then they would have to compensate you for not being able to work on technology X for Y amount of years?

Yeah this is what I'm unsure of as it steps into the legal side of things. In general though, doesn't it make sense to not create a free competitor right after leaving your employer? They may have a case regarding stealing trade secrets given that they did give you access to their codebase and daily ops.

Create a competitor? Maybe you should give the article a read, mkay?

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

#132

Post by autarch »

Grustaf wrote: post #107

It would be helpful if you could post the designs side by side so we could all judge if you have copied the design. If you haven't, they are simply in the wrong and you should re-publish you site. If your design is a copy, then most of your arguments are not very relevant. > Every similarity between my project and Replit can be explained by looking only at GitHub repositories and blog posts that were published online…

> I don't see how this is an argument. You're not allowed to copy their design even if it is public.

That's not true. This depends entirely on the license of the relevant (repl.it) GitHub projects that the author is referencing. I don't know of any open source license that allows you to copy & modify code but somehow forbids you from reusing intangible design elements.

This case is a little confusing, since it sounds like a case of simply producing a similar result _without_ copying any code from the repl.it repo. But given that you can copy the code to get the same result (again, assuming a FOSS license), I don't see how the license could forbid someone from using the same design _without_ copying code. But IANAL.

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

#133

Post by MattGaiser »

stuaxo wrote: post #77

The threats seem directly at odds with the CEOs tweet here https://twitter.com/amasad/status/1401617251464138754 This whole saga is pretty sad really. While replit isn't doing very much in wrapping these languages in a frontend (and something that is clearly straightforward to replicate), they are doing all the work that comes with scaling that to many users on the web (I guess that includes moderation). They should…

Plenty of people are pleasant in public and shitty in private.

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

#134

Post by cole-k »

Grustaf wrote: post #107

It would be helpful if you could post the designs side by side so we could all judge if you have copied the design. If you haven't, they are simply in the wrong and you should re-publish you site. If your design is a copy, then most of your arguments are not very relevant. > Every similarity between my project and Replit can be explained by looking only at GitHub repositories and blog posts that were published online…

Riju is down, but I had a chance to use it for a few minutes when it was up. To me it was very similar to tio.run, so take a look and see for yourself how they are similar to repl.it.

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

#135

Post by tgv »

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…

It doesn't scream miscommunication to me. It's of course possible to save face claiming that, but they're talking about the very same thing, IMO.

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

#136

Post by Yoofie »

Beside the whole legal threat drama, is anyone else surprised that replit got $20 million in VC funding for what essentially is a script that can be made by an intern in a day? And the idea has been around forever and is not even unique.

Is it really that easy to get VC funding for these types of things? Like Jesus, if all it takes is some ideas and moving to SF to secure funding like this, then I have a whole bunch of ideas worth 100's of millions that I would love to sell.

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

#137

Post by axbytg »

Amjad is incredibly unprofessional. Years ago I worked in ed-tech and one of our sales reps replied to a tweet, from a Replit user complaining about some feature on Replit. Amjad damn near bit his head off and said some really nasty things to him. My coworker was this meek religious dude honestly trying to just send a teacher a helpful link. I personally would never work there and have steered several great engineers I know away.

Edit: Amjad has been tweeting a ton of stuff along the lines of "oh you can be too popular on HN, hivemind bad" so expect to see him pull up the blinders and act like the world is crazy if he ever sees this. Amjad, you treat people poorly.

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

#138

Post by randompwd »

stuaxo wrote: post #77

The threats seem directly at odds with the CEOs tweet here https://twitter.com/amasad/status/1401617251464138754 This whole saga is pretty sad really. While replit isn't doing very much in wrapping these languages in a frontend (and something that is clearly straightforward to replicate), they are doing all the work that comes with scaling that to many users on the web (I guess that includes moderation). They should…

My guess would be more the available source rather than the website itself. I think it's fair to say somebody who interned at a place would have had things explained to them and had access to internal design docs which the intern themselves wouldnt necessarily have figured out if working from scratch.

I find it very bizarre for an intern to do this.

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