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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

#331

Post by jfrunyon »

dragonwriter wrote: post #206
jonny_eh wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lawyers do not like to lose cases, so will not push a losing agenda They will if they get paid.

Even if they get paid in advance, lawyers are acutely aware of the costs of litigation (even when you ultimately win) and that losing cases is one of the most common triggers for lawyers being sued, so, they really don't like losing cases even if they are getting paid. (There are caveats and exceptions, sure, but as a broad rule...)

The problem is that it's impossible to know if the lawyer coming after you is one of the ethical ones or not.

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

#332

Post by temp8964 »

armchairhacker wrote: post #251
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…

Many attorneys offer free consultations, so OP (or anyone in a similar situation) should've contacted an attorney and asked them what to do. The attorney would know very well if he was in actual danger or the CEO was just bluffing.

How can the attorney know for sure without going to the details? The guy worked for the company and created a very similar project.

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

#333

Post by samatman »

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…

Yep, that's the first thing I do when I'm running off with my former company's IP to launch a competitor: send an email to my erstwhile CEO with a link and ask him "so what do you think?"

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

#334

Post by londons_explore »

zemo wrote: post #314
londons_explore wrote: post #269

If I were the CEO in this position, I would make sure the intern had shares/stock options as part of their comp, and my reply would be: "Hi X,. It looks like a very cool project, but I'm slightly concerned that it's existence could hurt repl.it. And as shareholders, that could hurt both of us. Let me know if you want a video call to discuss further. X"

I seriously doubt he has any equity, he worked there for four months; most equity contracts have a one-year cliff.

Well that's a poor move on the CEOs side... Everyone who interacts with the company in any form should have some tiny amount of equity if legally possible, and some of it should be unvested, options, or restricted from sale.

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

#335

Post by teraflop »

randomNumber7 wrote: post #244

Can someone with knowledge in law tell me? If (in another world) he made this project with commercial motive and used some of the design decisions, would this actually be illegal?

Not a lawyer, but: Intellectual property rights fall into specific, legally-defined categories, such as copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets.

I don't see any hints that patents or trademarks are involved in this dispute in any way. Copyright violation seems unlikely, unless the intern improperly kept a copy of source code that he had access to while he was employed.

I could maybe see an argument for misappropriation of trade secrets, but the company would have to be able to make an argument that whatever specific secret information he used gave them a real competitive advantage, and that they took reasonable steps to protect it. (Having talked about their tech stack in engineering blog posts, as the OP alleges, would provide him with a pretty strong defense.)

If there's no IP infringement, then it doesn't matter whether there's a commercial motive or not.

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

#336

Post by mkishi »

stevebmark wrote: post #285
wernercd wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

That read very tongue in cheek to me. It'd be akin to creating a microblogging platform in a weekend without any production-ready engineering, yet claiming superiority over Twitter on a commit bumping the post limit to 560 characters.

And then having Twitter threatening to sue.

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

#338

Post by WJW »

codingdave wrote: post #289
antonzabirko wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ignoring the posturing of lawyers on the other hand can be plenty expensive.

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

#339

Post by jfrunyon »

armchairhacker wrote: post #251
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…

Many attorneys offer free consultations, so OP (or anyone in a similar situation) should've contacted an attorney and asked them what to do. The attorney would know very well if he was in actual danger or the CEO was just bluffing.

I would expect the free consultation to be "Hmm, that depends. Can you give me a copy of any contracts you signed with them? Oh and $$$. Send me $$$ too."

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

#340

Post by kyawzazaw »

ignoramous wrote: post #299
archibaldJ wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Also there appers to be a level of trust here. Amjad, replit's CEO, offered to hire OP, later accused them of copying their "internal designs", then threatened them with lawyers replit's millions can buy, eventually to stonewall and stop replying to their emails. What kind of trust is that? > Not sure how talented OP is. This can as well be a case study of who not to hire. That's a valid perspective, alright. One t…

I'd say he is pretty darn talented
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