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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

#591

Post by okdjnfweonfe »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #587
smnrchrds wrote: post #344

Earlier 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…

> He would have been bankrupt despite being 100% legally in the right. Fortunately for him, EFF decided to support him afterwards. But do not count on EFF paying for your legal defence. Why? If you are 100% legally in the right then why wouldn't an entity with sufficient resources whose agenda is in line with that of yours support you? They will get all the expenses compensated after you+they win, won't they?

because the legal system is human, a persuasive case is just as important as a legally backed case

Also, can only field X amount of cases per period, unless they want to be dealing with burnout etc

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

#592

Post by drusepth »

ilikehurdles wrote: post #363
bravura wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

This seems like an illegal job listing in Colorado.

I've seen a lot of companies "get around" this new law by just saying the job is not available to people living in Colorado, either explicitly on the listing or when you apply.

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

#594

Post by ezekg »

zx2391 wrote: post #42

No offense, but I found the early replit so cool, I will replicate it as a weekend project soon.

I'm also a big fan of early repl.it. I used to be able to hit a bookmarked url and get a repl right away. But its been getting slower and slower and more complicated lately, and this whole situation left a bad taste in my mouth, and it's probably the push I need to move to an alternative.

In case anybody is thinking of building -- I'd happily pay for a similar app that let's you write/share private repls, with third-party package support (yarn, pip, nuget, maven, etc.)

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

#595

Post by huntermeyer »

Repl.it CEO had this to say:

> There is a difference between copying a feature and actually getting intro a contract, and access to the code, copying it and calling it open-source.

> As a matter of principle, when someone goes into your home and steals from you, even if it's not material, you have to respond.

https://mobile.twitter.com/amasad/status/1401957368510906369

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

#596

Post by drusepth »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #78

Guys, I don’t know what this is about yet, but I know amjad (ceo). And I know that whatever is going on here, his intentions were pure. He’s proven himself to me that he’s pretty much the opposite of a sleezy corporate ceo who crushes intern side projects while twirling his mustache. I just wanted to encourage everybody to chill on it for a moment and wait to see what’s up, because my spidey senses are screaming “mis…

Uhhhh... side note: you only gave him 5 minutes to respond according to those timestamps. Going offline for a bit is probably a good idea if only for the passage of time; if I were him (especially in a time where shit is hitting the fan), I'd want to take some time to think things through before responding to anyone, even friends.

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

#597

Post by albedoa »

fredgrott wrote: post #533

Some points: 1. I am not lawyer but: Is threatening someone with legal action illegal? Yes, if the intent is to resolve a good-faith dispute without litigation. But the threat of legal action without the intention of taking it may constitute extortion. Note that the person making the settlement request does not need to be right that the claim is winnable. But it must be made in good faith.Feb 24, 2020 OP needs to spe…

No, the threat of legal action is not extortion regardless of the intention behind it. I see your disclaimer, but you went on to repeat a common misconception.

It can be extortion to threaten to involve the police if demands are not met, but this is not that.

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

#598

Post by lesuorac »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #587
smnrchrds wrote: post #344

Earlier 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…

> He would have been bankrupt despite being 100% legally in the right. Fortunately for him, EFF decided to support him afterwards. But do not count on EFF paying for your legal defence. Why? If you are 100% legally in the right then why wouldn't an entity with sufficient resources whose agenda is in line with that of yours support you? They will get all the expenses compensated after you+they win, won't they?

The loser only pays the winner's legal fees when required [1]. I'm not a lawyer but iiuc as long as you file in one of 21 states [2] you shouldn't expect to have to payout for making a pointless lawsuit.

Anecdotally, there were a lot of lawsuits claiming fraud & etc in the recent US president elections and I haven't heard of a single case where they had to pay for losing them.

[1]: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/attorney-fees-does-l... [2]: https://www.medialaw.org/topics-page/anti-slapp

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

#600

Post by mannykannot »

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…

OP had anticipated your complaints in his post, and pre-replied to them. For example:

Replit makes a webapp you can use to run code online in different programming languages. This is nothing new (just Google “run python online” for proof), so Replit’s value proposition is extra features like sharing your work, installing third-party packages, and hosting webapps.

...

Now, none of the ideas I used in my open-source project were “internal design decisions”: they’ve all been published publicly on Replit’s blog (I knew this because I’d been asked to write some of those blog posts during my internship). And my project also wasn’t any more of a Replit clone than any of the other websites on the first few pages of Google results for “run python online”, most of which look exactly the same.

You may disagree with these claims, but the general / hypothetical stance of your post does not give me any reason to think OP is blowing smoke up our collective asses.

For that matter, the CEO of Replit could be more specific about what OP's 'crime' is, though I suspect the worst of it is that OP's actions revealed how threadbare the Emperor's clothes are.

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