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

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

#281

Post by iforgotpassword » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

randompwd wrote: post #138

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.

Replit is about everything surrounding the eval() call. The intern's clone, according to them, had nothing of this (scaling, user accounts, saving code snippets, ...). If they'd rebuilt all that too I'd see the point, but really, what great secrets are there in those "design docs" that just refer to the part of the service where you put in your code and click run? These things have been around for at least a decade, this one just seems to have the most languages.

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

#282

Post by cryptica » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

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.

The whole startup space is disgusting. There are a bunch of lucky founders 'chosen ones' who get a ton of VC funding; as soon as they accept VC funding, users 'magically' start pouring in (cabal/manipulation?), which attracts more funding... Then some megacorp acquires the startup for millions of dollars. Easy peasy.

Then these lucky, spoiled-rotten assholes think they're entitled to sue anyone who tries to compete with them. Everyone knows this is not a free market. Just a bunch of artificially selected spoiled brats with rich daddies/friends enriching themselves by destroying society.

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

#283

Post by mitchill » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

Gualdrapo wrote: post #253

mitchill wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's one thing to do this to learn more about software development, it's another to give it a name and a website. They're really leaning into the "I'm just an intern without commercial intents" narrative, but regardless of their intent, it's still incredibly unethical to create something similar your previous employer's IP and market it independently.

Then why would OP tell them about that? Sounds to me like the latest thing you'd do

Likely OP didn't think it was unethical, which is why they shared, but that doesn't change the fact that it was.

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

#284

Post by kbelder » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

johnwheeler wrote: post #171

jamestimmins wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The lack of evidence is a clear indication!

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

#285

Post by stevebmark » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

wernercd wrote: post #151

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…

"Prior invention" He created Riju AFTER working as an intern at Repl.it. From the article: > I worked for Replit in Summer 2019 Also from the article, regarding Riju commits: > 2020-06-05 df9ba38 Initial commit "I can understand" to a degree. That's what time-limited non-competes are for. I think a lot depends on what he signed as he was hired and/or leaving Repl.it - was there a "you can't work for a competitor for…

I'm not thinking so much about non compete, I'm thinking about copyright violation or trade secrets (even though it's not the most stunning tech here). I specifically see this commit message:

> repl.it superiority!!

It's weird to have that commit message and then to claim Riju is unrelated and not a clone of Repl.it.

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

#286

Post by sangupta » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

brabel wrote: post #203

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.

Agreed... but the intern is obviously incredibly naive in thinking that repl.it would be happy to see one of their ex-interns working on a project that does pretty much the same kind of thing they're doing... whether or not this is a threat to them right now. There's a tiny, but non-zero chance, that this project could become successful and who knows, take marketshare from repl.it... and while everyone is pretending…

> basically spreading some of that knowledge you gave them and making it packaged and accessible not only to future contributors of their project, but to all competitors and genuine copycats out there

With this reasoning anyone at Amazon cannot join another ecommerce, or anyone at Microsoft OS cannot join Apple, or anyone in iPhone team cannot join Android.

If you are worried that your product is at the mercy of people not talking about it, or experimenting with the knowledge in future, then thats the least of your worries. The product, the team and the company is in a deep mess.

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

#287

Post by no_time » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

mpeg wrote: post #76

Poor form by the repl.it CEO here, bullying a junior employee to take their weekend project down. If your product is threatened by this, it's probably not a very good product. I've used Repl.it multiplayer to interview candidates in the past, will probably look for an alternative in the future. If anyone knows of one that supports non-web languages (I already use codesandbox for frontend) like python, etc. this is th…

> If anyone knows of one that supports non-web languages (I already use codesandbox for frontend) like python, etc. this is the chance to pitch it.

How about a locally hosted lxc container running nothing but sshd, tmux (to share a single tty), nano and whatever compiler/interpreter you need? If you want to get real fancy and edit the same file, kakoune has a collaborative editing feature.

I might not value my time enough but right now I really don't get the value proposition of 70% of saas businesses trending here.

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

#288

Post by eulenteufel » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

mitchill wrote: post #213

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…

Agreed. It's one thing to do this to learn more about software development, it's another to give it a name and a website. They're really leaning into the "I'm just an intern without commercial intents" narrative, but regardless of their intent, it's still incredibly unethical to create something similar your previous employer's IP and market it independently.

>incredibly unethical to create something similar your previous employer's IP and market it independently.

Can you explain why you think it is unethical? Provided no noncompete clauses or other previous agreements were violated.

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

#289

Post by codingdave » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:29 PM UTC

antonzabirko wrote: post #276

codingdave wrote: post #111

> Naturally, I took down my project right away... So a CEO bullied you. He threatened to have lawyers look at something, accused you of behaving poorly, and accused you of being difficult. He is being manipulative. He is trying to guilt / scare you into stopping. And it worked. For all readers... do not be afraid of lawyers. Especially if nobody has even talked to them yet. Lawyers do not like to lose cases, so will…

Sorry, are you going to pay my legal fees? If yes, please by all means reach out.

What legal fees? It costs you nothing to ignore the posturing of bullies.

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

#290

Post by aritmo » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 5:29 PM UTC

Mulpze15 wrote: post #230

What if it was a purposeful Streisand effect, if we would assume there is not such thing as bad publicity. I bully a lone open source dev, everybody get fired up, I go front page HN, maybe as the bad guy, but now people hear about me, and total sign-up increase. Would be devilish, maybe would work?

Perhaps in another dimension.