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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

#161

Post by ben0x539 »

mfer wrote: post #121
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.

VC funded companies aren't some tech billionaire funding a cool new project. VC funded companies are investments that they want a return on. It shouldn't be surprising when people try very hard to protect that investment to help them get a better return.

It doesn't have to be surprising to be entertaining!

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

#163

Post by wernercd »

johnwheeler wrote: post #113

Situation sounds like to me is: CEO keeps in touch with beast mode 10x'er intern who both impressed him and needed to be kept at arms length. Beast mode intern flirts with the idea of launching a competing startup under the guise of innocent open source project and transparency with a passing mention of project in email. CEO realizes he needs to shut intern down otherwise any communication that looks supportive might…

> Beast mode intern flirts with the idea of launching a competing startup under the guise of innocent open source project and transparency with mention in email.

Amjad... is that you?

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

#164

Post by debacle »

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.

Talent or not, having the passion to put together a crazy project like this that has no real practical use but is very interesting - I would want to hire that person over someone with a bit more skill.

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

#165

Post by CapmCrackaWaka »

abricot wrote: post #100
stevebmark wrote: post #58

Did the author disclose the work on Riju as a prior invention before joining Repl.it? If so that puts him in the clear. I would also check your hiring contract to see what kind of clauses are in there about prior inventions. For larger companies, I don't think this company behavior would surprise anyone. I think I can understand where Repl.it is coming from. All I know is this behavior (by Riju author) isn't somethin…

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

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

#166

Post by jwilber »

If the CEO didn’t throw a tantrum over the exact things his company claims to support (OSS, creativity, etc.), nobody would know about the intern’s weekend project. But he did, and now we’ll see something of a Streisand effect [0].

To be fair, it is kind of suspect to intern for a company and, at the end of that internship, turn around and create effectively the same thing. And OP’s dismissive tone and propensity to hand wave away things that may be relevant in his blogpost certainly don’t make them seem ideal to employ. But ‘suspect’ only in the sense that (in my personal opinion) it gives credence to the CEO’s comment on the intern being difficult. I still think replit is in the wrong here.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

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

#167

Post by testudovictoria »

megous wrote: post #93
devwastaken wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defense is a lot more expensive than offense in civil court. Complicated cases like these can be dragged for years and they'd have to pay for it. Intellectual property laws are very in the favor of whomever has the money to throw lawyers around.

Yes, but what would replit gain? Going after such a case would have given them nothing except for some expense. Dragging random people through court without any meaningful expected outcome sure doesn't seem like something VC's would like to fund. I'm not a VC though. Do they just rubber stamp whatever bullshit behavior from a CEO?

This isn't about what Replit can gain. It's about stifling this before it can ever become something more that a legal threat. Replit is banking on legal pressure to win this for them, because there's likely a nasty PR fallout on the other side of actual litigation.

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

#169

Post by jonny_eh »

tomp wrote: post #127
rd wrote: post #7

If I’m reading those emails correctly, Amjad the CEO directly emailed you occasionally. It is pretty stunning that as the CEO of the company, he would stoop to what I interpret as pretty unprofessional communication and petty threats. I also am failing to connect the dots about why Replit would even feel threatened - if you were as helpful of an intern as described, you’d think they would recognize that you had good…

I’d agree with you if this was just a random person, but from this thread (I haven’t read the article) I gather that s/he was actually an intern... surely every intern/employee would sign some kind of non-compete / trade secret / intellectual property agreement? In that case, the CEO is completely justified in pursuing to enforce that agreement! Again, it would be different if the CEO threatened a random third party…

Non-compete's are not (practically) enforceable in California, where repl.it is located.

https://www.callahan-law.com/are-non-competes-enforceable-in...

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

#170

Post by whymauri »

jamestimmins wrote: post #147
johnwheeler wrote: post #113

Situation sounds like to me is: CEO keeps in touch with beast mode 10x'er intern who both impressed him and needed to be kept at arms length. Beast mode intern flirts with the idea of launching a competing startup under the guise of innocent open source project and transparency with a passing mention of project in email. CEO realizes he needs to shut intern down otherwise any communication that looks supportive might…

Except nothing in the OP's work or correspondence suggests any competitive aspirations, so unless other information comes to light, this summary is a fantasy.

Regardless of whether it's true, one has to admit it sounds like a sideplot from Halt and Catch Fire, lol.
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