I just deleted my repl account. I rarely used it. I am not their paying customer so not sure if it counts but it is a small token of soliditary.
Reading those emails from the CEO left a bad taste in mouth.
Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
441–450 of 1001 posts
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#442Earlier 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.
I don't think anyone who doesn't work for you has any obligation whatsoever to consider your image. As a CEO and public face of a company you should go ahead and assume that anyone you threaten or badmouth will go ahead and talk about it online, on the news, or with a bullhorn at the local mall.
He willingly traded some percentage chance at a competitor using an open source project to steal some percentage of his business for this PR nightmare. Personally I think this effort shows the bar for such a project is pretty low so I don't think shutting it down was a good trade off. I think it shows immaturity, bad will, bad faith and honestly its more of a case study in whom not to work for. Most people they would want to hire are liable to have multiple options. They can ill afford to be an undesirable choice.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#443Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want justice, be prepared to pay for it. If you're unable to pay for it, you will not receive justice. I am aware that this is not the 1950's superman definition of justice. It is the "welcome to America" version of justice, that you often can't even get if you can pay for it, depending on who you are. So, you pick that fight. I've got a family and a life I need to protect; I'll stand on the sidelines and watc…
> I am aware that this is not the 1950's superman definition of justice. It’s not any definition of justice, its simply the rule of the powerful over the weak.
Stop that. We aren’t supposed to say the quiet part out loud.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#444Earlier quoted context omitted.
Counterpoint: be afraid of lawyers. They may not be able to win s judgment against you, but they can easily bankrupt you. Remember the case where a man criticized Proctorio and was hit with a SLAPP lawsuit aimed to silence him. He ended up spending 100k on legal costs and the case is only beginning. He would have been bankrupt despite being 100% legally in the right. Fortunately for him, EFF decided to support him af…
It goes both ways. Imagine Replit’s attorney going after OP. If OP didn’t take down the site, then suing them is going to be a huge expense & waste of time. Is Replit really gonna pay some corporate attorney $600-ish per hour to harass someone? You don’t even need a lawyer to show up in court and say “I’m a broke ass new grad, and these guys are trying to take down my website. I don’t even know why, but I’m dragging…
The attorney will never say this. They will bill hours after hours because it is in their best interest.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#445So this is when we purchase "fuckreplit.com", offer a far superior clone and watch as the free market does its magic? Every time I read a story like this I just hope the business dies, and for any employees it's time to jump ship, you really do not want to be working for a CEO who makes comments and threats. Time to release that source code, have 100 clones appear and let this loser sue everyone into misery - I'm sur…
I think RIPlit would have better potential at attracting customers than anything using the f-word :)
REKT.it is also nice
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#446If you got litigatious companies threatening you, the simpliest is to turn it into an official GNU project, and assign the copyright to the FSF. They'll happily fight the bastards.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#447I'm on a job search, and Replit is one of the places I was going to apply, off of their listings on HN Who is Hiring?. So much for that, and I suspect a lot of devs are going to feel the same. (I don't think I'm good enough to get in, but there're a lot of really good devs who read HN who are.) In a seller's market for developers, this could hurt them in the form of less good talent applying. That said, my gut feelin…
which is hilarious given that the CEO of repl.it is literally building something similar to a product that he worked on at codeacademy
This is the absolute best part of this. Re-read his snarky language now knowing this and it's just...funny.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#448> 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…
I appreciate the sentiment here, but this strikes me as very dangerous advice, especially framed as a blanket rule. Even more so when dealing with someone who has presumably far greater resources.
There's no way you can know what this person's legal exposure might be without seeing their employment contract. They may well be completely in the right and this CEO is all bluster, but it's unequivocally bad advice to suggest that there's nothing to be concerned about based on the information you have.
Even beyond that, I've (unfortunately) known companies that were entirely willing to dump money into lawsuits they knew they had no hope of winning just to set the precedent that you should not cross them or they'll bury you in legal expenses.
In the end your advice may be exactly right, but it's definitely not reasonable to make these kinds of blanket assumptions.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#449Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want justice, be prepared to pay for it. If you're unable to pay for it, you will not receive justice. I am aware that this is not the 1950's superman definition of justice. It is the "welcome to America" version of justice, that you often can't even get if you can pay for it, depending on who you are. So, you pick that fight. I've got a family and a life I need to protect; I'll stand on the sidelines and watc…
> I am aware that this is not the 1950's superman definition of justice. It’s not any definition of justice, its simply the rule of the powerful over the weak.
For those living in America, that’s what they can expect. It does no-one any good to pretend otherwise.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#450So this is when we purchase "fuckreplit.com", offer a far superior clone and watch as the free market does its magic? Every time I read a story like this I just hope the business dies, and for any employees it's time to jump ship, you really do not want to be working for a CEO who makes comments and threats. Time to release that source code, have 100 clones appear and let this loser sue everyone into misery - I'm sur…