Just deleted Replit account, and heavily suggest the same action.
Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
481–490 of 1001 posts
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#482A 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.
"People try very hard to protect that investment and that's why gangsters tracked down where you live and broke your legs"
If someone is invested and stands to loose money, it does not gice them a free pass to act immorally.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#483Am I missing something ? You interned at a small company and then you built a very similar open source tool which is close to the core product they offer ? Whether the CEO is an asshole or not, I can't think of not agreeing with them here. Your "intentions" don't matter. If your work is very similar to your previous employer's , they have the right to ask you to take it down or come after you.
Wait, so you think that once you work at Pepsi you are never allowed to create your own business selling soft drinks?
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#484Unpopular opinion, IAAL and frankly Replit has a case that will pass the "motion to dismiss" stage when litigation starts getting expensive b/c of discovery. The OP worked for Replit and therefore had access to private source code or "trade secrets" before creating his project. It'd take expert testimony for the OP to prove in court that his OSS project was not influenced in any way by Replit's closed-source code, wh…
lol you don’t know what you’re talking about in the least
even if I don't know what I'm talking about in the least, a judge would still have to assume everything in a pleading is true and imo Repl.it would have done enough to get there w/ trade secret allegations had OP not taken the OSS down.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's kinda funny how their CEO writes on Twitter all the time that they are the best company in the world, with the best product, do most innovations in tech etc and 10 minutes later he is threatened by a small open-source project that wasn't even created to compete.
I unfollowed him after he tweeted that Repl.it is the most innovative company in the world. Yeah, not SpaceX or Neuralink or Pfizer. A company that runs docker images is the most innovative company.
Are you referring to Pfizer because of the mRNA-vaccine? That has actually been invented by the German biotech startup BioNTech ;-)
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#486What an unfortunate set of events.
I think both parties communicated badly with each other. It is easy to try to look at this in a binary fashion. In reality the situation is very complex and prone to misinterpretation.
There are no excuses for childish behaviour though
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#487This repo is probably going to become the next youtube-dl on Github.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#488Vote me down, but Ycombinator: "It's all about the founders blah blah blah" - if their process finds and funds these kind of people, the process is broken. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/repl-it
Yes, but supporting remote by offering $0 - 0 salary and 0.00% - 0.00% equity seems legit and completely transparent: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/repl-it/jobs/aihA75TQr...
Seeing that I would simply assume they didn't want to advertise specifics about salary, which is not unusual, so they entered 0 into a form. Am I missing something?
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#489Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
> For those living in America, that’s what they can expect. It does no-one any good to pretend otherwise.
Be that as it may, it likewise does no one any good to pretend it has any connection to justice.
Re: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project
#490A 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.
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.
Reading this part really made my head shake. Attacking a former intern like that, why would anyone want to intern there after this?