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Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

intuitiveexplanations.com

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

#661

Post by dsissitka »

mindcrime wrote: post #640
tiltrus wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

amasad is a regular HN'er who's very active in all posts related to repl.it. Very immature behavior on Amjad's part. I'm considering pulling our corporations subscription and moving to Stackblitz now....

amasad is a regular HN'er who's very active in all posts related to repl.it. Until, curiously enough, today... My guess is, his "top lawyers" and other advisors gave him instructions which amounted to - in layman's terms - "Dude, STFU." Edit: disregard, he did show up and start commenting here.

He's just avoiding it. He retweeted this:

https://twitter.com/pnegahdar/status/1402018604233732098

And tweeted this:

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

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

#662

Post by ahmedalsudani »

tommoor wrote: post #634

> we’re also excited to announce one of the first (of many!) projects that Amjad has worked on with us: Codecademy Labs, the easiest way to play with JavaScript, Ruby, and Python online I'll just leave this here so we can all bask in the insane hypocrisy of this entire episode. https://www.codecademy.com/resources/blog/amjad-joins-codeca... Edit: See Amjad's response below – seems Repl.it may have pre-dated this hiri…

Hah. Good find. No wonder he's paranoid about a weekend project :)

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

#663

Post by erdo »

AYBABTME wrote: post #409
jfrunyon wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Have you tried? I've got good 30min conversations with lawyers on the phone for 0$, and them telling me I didn't need their services after all, but to call them if X happens. Same with many other professionals, FWIW.

Yep that's been my experience too (UK lawyers). A few emails, a quick look at my contract (client was in breach by terminating without notice). The lawyers explained exactly what the legal situation was and told me that I would probably win an amount slightly less than their fee and they recommended I didn't bother - totally free advice.

(Annoyingly the reason I wouldn't have won that much in damages was that I had mitigated my damages by finding another contract within days)

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

#664

Post by cmorgan31 »

JoeOfTexas wrote: post #554
rdudekul wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amjad the CEO of Replit could be fairly insecure person afraid of losing his company's dominance/marketshare to some simple intern/developer. I am sure he did NOT expect this level of heat. This article and the associated 'press' could serve as a text-book case for insecure start-up CXOs.

I mean, making a whole blog post about the situation, and then making the top post of hacker news, just kind of keeps the sniper scope of lawyers pointed at himself.

The intern? Yeah he’s fine. There’s no real consequence for that person other than proving he’s a capable employee who can be a bit obsessive. They should work in a tangentially related area of product for awhile and forget it ever happened. Technical hires who can implement your idea is much more valuable in bulk than ideas themselves.

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

#665

Post by munk-a »

mindcrime wrote: post #640
tiltrus wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

amasad is a regular HN'er who's very active in all posts related to repl.it. Very immature behavior on Amjad's part. I'm considering pulling our corporations subscription and moving to Stackblitz now....

amasad is a regular HN'er who's very active in all posts related to repl.it. Until, curiously enough, today... My guess is, his "top lawyers" and other advisors gave him instructions which amounted to - in layman's terms - "Dude, STFU." Edit: disregard, he did show up and start commenting here.

Which is extremely wise advice honestly. This lawsuit is a bit muddled and less clear cut than folks have been portraying it. Speaking out in a forum like this may salve your pride but it isn't going to result in absolutely anything that's helpful legally - it can cause only harm.

(And honestly - most HNers would just take the opportunity to bash him if he showed his face, so for his mental health as well I am happy he's keeping to the shadows)

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

#666

Post by CRConrad »

trhway wrote: post #556

>Every similarity between my project and Replit can be explained by looking only at GitHub repositories and blog posts that were published online by Replit itself, making them obviously not any kind of secret. [IANAL] while not a trade secret, isn't it a straight admission of IP reuse without explicit permission (until of course Replit published that stuff under GPL or the likes)

Do people often put up source code that isn't under some kind of FOSS license onto GitHub?

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

#667

Post by munk-a »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #474
mypalmike wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is not too difficult to find a decent employment or IP lawyer to spend an hour with you for a few hundred dollars to go over a document and advise you on how to respond.

A few hundred dollars? For a new grad that is a ton of money!

And that's sorta the rub - these costs are all really reasonable to anyone who's been working a white collar job for a few years, but it can be hard to afford for new employees and people in poverty.

Thankfully there are organizations that will take up your legal fight for free in the US.

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

#668

Post by neweggrma »

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…

>Evidently, I am not a good judge of character, and I need to stop believing in people without really knowing them.

I seriously hope this sticks with you. I've let a lot of my frustration with HN and other social media go when I've realized that people are not good judges of characters of others.

God damn people fall for scams, charlatans and more all the time. I spent much of high school frustrated because one of my closer friends was just a constant grifter and no one could ever see through it despite my innards constantly screaming ALERT ALERT ALERT.

STOP GOING TO BAT FOR STRANGERS, FOLKS.

And when people tell you and show you who they are fucking believe them.

---

oh man this is the kind of stuff that eats at me. I have a better sense of tech than most (adopted Rust, K8s and crypto 3+ years before they were on anyone's radar), but I also don't fall for this shit. Do you not realize how cringe it is to watch you fall over yourself for yet another egostistic SV megalomaniac.

nothing about replit is that unique either, to hear the way y'all jerk off about is... well holy shit no one there's a contingency of us still refusing to go back to the industry. I'd rather shoot myself.

Nothing about replit is unique. I don't know how to stress that more. Give me $50K and Theia and I could make a MVP that apparently stupid VCs would be dying to fund.

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

#669

Post by ivan888 »

tommoor wrote: post #634

> we’re also excited to announce one of the first (of many!) projects that Amjad has worked on with us: Codecademy Labs, the easiest way to play with JavaScript, Ruby, and Python online I'll just leave this here so we can all bask in the insane hypocrisy of this entire episode. https://www.codecademy.com/resources/blog/amjad-joins-codeca... Edit: See Amjad's response below – seems Repl.it may have pre-dated this hiri…

To be fair, you can see that the README of the jq-console project that was mentioned in this article had a reference to what seems to be the predecessor of repl.it months prior to the publication of this article: https://github.com/replit-archive/jq-console/blame/7c0b9ffa8...

However... the irony is still hilarious, and this in no way excuses Amjad's emails

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

#670

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

It's kinda funny how this whole drama is for copying some "intellectual property" that anyone can easily build.

If you don't want your virtual cloud sandbox app to be copied easily, build something that actually is novel. For example see Stackblitz https://stackblitz.com/ I think they're going to completely destroy all these Replit-like models.

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