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

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

#171

Post by johnwheeler » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

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.

Of course it doesn't.

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

#172

Post by williamtwild » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

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 have met many "CEO"s of a 5 person company so they were CEO by title and not by wright.

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

#173

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

zemo wrote: post #22

so they said "we're gonna talk to some lawyers" and your response is to write a lengthy public blog post without any legal counsel, in which you publish private correspondence along with the other person's contact info without their consent, and in which you essentially document all of the evidence against you -and- admit you understood your actions? huh. That's probably not how I would have responded.

[deleted]

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

#174

Post by atarian » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

I just want to say how much I appreciate the author's courage in coming forward and disclosing this publicly. Too often, people are afraid of retaliation when shining a light on rotten behavior. If this CEO ever follows through with his threat, I will be sure to donate to a legal fund in your defense.

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

#175

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

[deleted]

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

#176

Post by thinkloop » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:01 PM UTC

rdudekul wrote: post #129

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…

Amjad the CEO of Replit could be fairly insecure person afraid of losing his company's dominance/marketshare to some simple intern/developer. I am sure he did NOT expect this level of heat. This article and the associated 'press' could serve as a text-book case for insecure start-up CXOs.

I wonder, people always reference the Streisand Effect, but for every one of those there are a thousand complaints that go quietly heeded.

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

#177

Post by randompwd » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:01 PM UTC

axbytg wrote: post #137

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…

> religious dude

What has religious got to do with anything? Most terrorism in todays world is by religious dudes.

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

#178

Post by aritmo » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC

Looks like this "Replit" is a joke service. Too easy to replicate and no reason to use them.

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

#179

Post by lbriner » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC

It's probably annoying and upsetting but it is no different from any other legal dispute. All you have to remind yourself is that legal stuff is business-as-usual for any sized company about a handful of people.

Are they correct legally or morally? Maybe, maybe not. Are your arguments compelling? Yes but I am not a lawyer and even if I was, the result is the same. Being correct doesn't avoid the legal action. They have more money than you and maybe they want to spend it trying to get you closed down. Maybe they win, maybe they won't but sadly it comes down to the same thing? Do you want to risk whatever outcome they are threatening and can you afford to?

You could always wait to see what exactly they are alleging before taking action but if the CEO is a dickhead then he might not care about the details, and might sign off a few 10Ks of the budget just because he can.

Welcome to business!

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

#180

Post by mathattack » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:03 PM UTC

Companies definitely have to be careful about not coming too heavy handed. Many states also have protections for side projects.

Even still, if you start a project that is very similar to your day job, you’re asking for trouble. Imagine you are the CEO and someone says, “Our intern is open sourcing something very similar to our core product.” That will always look bad and cause a reaction. How heavy handed the reaction is will vary, but every company will react.