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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

#811

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

munk-a wrote: post #673
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if your own lawyer believes they have a case By this point, you have already lost (hundreds or thousands of dollars of lawyer fees and possibly countless sleepless nights). "Stop letting people be bullies" is unfortunately hard unless you are sure that you can afford the cost.

Not quite - if your lawyer believes they have a case, especially a strong case, there is quite likely a good opportunity to settle out of court and the other side's lawyers (acting in their own client's best interest) will go out of their way to try and encourage them to accept a reasonable settlement. You're only boned if it actually goes to court - and even in that case you're still free to settle until the judge a…

The second "your lawyer" exists, you have hired and paid a lawyer.

Any settlement that doesn't consist of "the company withdraws their claims *and covers your lawyer costs" means you lost.

Not saying you're going to go bankrupt, just that you lost (financially) compared to just giving up a toy project and letting the bully win.

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

#812

Post by truetraveller »

PhineasRex wrote: post #675
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…

This explains a lot of why he's so threatened by this random POC. He's projecting onto the author the exact thing that he did.

Not the "exact thing" at all. Replit existed before he joined the company. Moreover, Codecademy's primary purpose was not a code playground.

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

#813

Post by aparsons »

jcrites wrote: post #771
amasad wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was a clone of Replit that we made work at Codecademy. I started working on Replit (or repl.it) back when I was a student in Jordan. I didn't have a laptop so every time I wanted to get some programming done I had to setup a development environment at the university or at work. The idea for Replit was when you needed a repl to do some coding you should easily get one from anywhere including a mobile device. I th…

California law does not recognize non-compete agreements. Your heardquarters are in San Francisco. Good luck. Unless you have ironclad evidence that he stole intellectual property from your company you don't have a legal case to stand on. I have offered to pay the student's legal fees in exchange for putting the GitHub repository back up, with the provision of reviewing the contracts he signed with you to ensure ther…

Happy to contribute as well, if a GoFundMe / some other crowd fund is set up.

OP, if you choose to bring the project back up, please reach out. I know some college professors who may be interested to be your first customers.

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

#814

Post by dvt »

truetraveller wrote: post #812
PhineasRex wrote: post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This explains a lot of why he's so threatened by this random POC. He's projecting onto the author the exact thing that he did.

Not the "exact thing" at all. Replit existed before he joined the company. Moreover, Codecademy's primary purpose was not a code playground.

Honest question: why are you so aggressively shilling for Repl.it in this thread?

Been reading it all day to see how it develops, and I've seen at least like 15 low-quality snippy posts by you defending Amjad Masad and his position. A friendly reminder that these kind of posts really lower the quality of discourse here on HN.

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

#815

Post by dogman144 »

ejboy wrote: post #548
dogman144 wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah in general this strikes me as a learning lesson. If you're at all career-wise (and/or have signed a contract recently), this area is usually anywhere from an ethically gray area, to a contractural third rail. A CEO flexing on an early-career SWE is the height of nonsense, but this sounds like an early-career mistake to make on the engineer's end. For the SWE it's a project, for the CEO it's existential. Of cours…

How exactly it's existential if a single intern could copy their product? Imagine Microsoft/GitHub or someone with deep pockets going after them?

My point is the view of the world for the two parties here is totally different (unless you are a founder on the edge of success without enough funding on the line to lose your mind at an intern, and if so - interested on your take).

Not empathizing with the founder other than noting it would be sort of predicable for the founder to react like this. IP is big

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

#816

Post by xenihn »

amasad wrote: post #757

Hey everyone, I want to apologize for the inappropriate use of power here. While I do believe there is an ethical line that was crossed here, I should have called him to understand his point of view and work it out. Which is what I'll try to do now, and see if we can get his project back up again. I'm sorry Radon. The lesson for me here is to internalize how I'm no longer the struggling kid from Jordan fighting for m…

What is the ethical line that was crossed? There is no basis for this unless you think that Radon intends to monetize, and then become a direct competitor.

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

#817

Post by Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL »

macspoofing wrote: post #810
Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL wrote: post #767

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson here is to ask people for advice before writing public statements (for one), and before threatening with lawsuits in private communication. 1) You apologize, but basically the other person did something wrong? 2) You invoke sympathy for being a "struggling kid from Jordan fighting for more than a decade to build something" ; so what? So now you're the victim? Your reaction to all of this is comedy gold. Hi…

>The lesson here is The lesson here is never apologize on the internet because that'll be thrown back in your face.

I see what you mean and there's of course some truth to it. He's stuck in a corner and no matter what he does now, some will write if off as insincere. I don't doubt that.

But besides honing communication skills and maybe tune back his ego some (for the future), do you really think the whole situation (including his apology) would not have been vastly improved by consulting with someone knowledgeable in PR?

If you think his apology sounds sincere and is worded appropriately, or his Twitter activity since the fiasco, does (or has done) him any good, then I guess we disagree on this.

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

#818

Post by CheezeIt »

griffinmb wrote: post #777
amasad wrote: post #757

Hey everyone, I want to apologize for the inappropriate use of power here. While I do believe there is an ethical line that was crossed here, I should have called him to understand his point of view and work it out. Which is what I'll try to do now, and see if we can get his project back up again. I'm sorry Radon. The lesson for me here is to internalize how I'm no longer the struggling kid from Jordan fighting for m…

Based on your retweet[1], you still seem to be publicly punching down. [1]: https://twitter.com/pnegahdar/status/1402018604233732098?s=2...

The guy made a whole blog post attacking him. You shouldn’t defend yourself?

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

#819

Post by rurabe »

parafactual wrote: post #792
rurabe wrote: post #781

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pretty weird/low class move to build a free clone of the product you just worked on. pretty petty decision to threaten to sue your former intern for his weird move. also, threatening someone with money is a pretty surefire way to look like an asshole. similarly petty decision to spend hours documenting everything to post on HN and start throwing mud in public. everyone seems well within their legal rights but ethical…

Is it really "petty" if you are receiving dubious legal threats from a large corporation? Even if one is confident that they haven't, say, infringed IP, legal fees can be crippling. It seems worse to keep quiet if you are being bullied by a well-known and respected person/entity more powerful than you.

yeah patent trolls and frivolous lawsuits are definitely a problem, but this doesn't really smell the same.

and i see your point, he seems to be within his rights to do this. even if i would be pretty irritated if someone ripped off my idea after working with me, it's problematic if he is being bullied from doing so.

i don't know how that extends to ethics though, which seems to be the theme of his post. either there's a moral code and i think he's shading the wrong side, or its the law of the jungle and then the ceo is free to use a lawsuit to stop him.

i think it's just the general sense of thirst and drama that i get from his blog and emails that make me think he's really after the publicity instead. which he has accomplished.

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

#820

Post by [deleted] »

amasad wrote: post #757

Hey everyone, I want to apologize for the inappropriate use of power here. While I do believe there is an ethical line that was crossed here, I should have called him to understand his point of view and work it out. Which is what I'll try to do now, and see if we can get his project back up again. I'm sorry Radon. The lesson for me here is to internalize how I'm no longer the struggling kid from Jordan fighting for m…

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