Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project

intuitiveexplanations.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

861–870 of 1001 posts

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

#861

Post by equilibrium »

marcinzm wrote: post #783
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…

I've seen multiple tweets from you the last day regarding this where you definitely showed no regret and simply kept trying to prove you were in the right. Even this response tries to make people feel bad for you and divert empathy away from the person you attacked. And also implies the only reason you are relenting is because it's making the company you represent look bad. So apologies are good but this seems the we…

When in a deadlock play the victim card. What an insincere apology.

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

#863

Post by snaek96 »

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…

When your investors threaten to pull funding.

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

#864

Post by notsureaboutpg »

mindcrime wrote: post #702
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…

It copied even unique, invisible aspects of Replit's architecture that I consider to be flaws. That's the hallmark of copying versus merely writing one's own program to solve the same problem. Or the hallmark of having experience working in a particular domain, and simply favoring techniques and approaches that are familiar. Is there any particular reason why anybody should believe that any of these "unique, invisibl…

It's weird because design decisions certainly aren't copyrightable. Using X,Y,and Z tools in a project is absolutely not a copyrightable / IP-able concept.

And yet, this is exactly the kind of stuff that can be very crucial to a business. The tools you use and how you use them can be very very valuable and if other people use your tools the way you use them they can replicate your value.

It's both a threat and one you can't really defend against.

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

#865

Post by [deleted] »

Me1000 wrote: post #831
ping_pong wrote: post #825

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no ethical lines crossed. If you have proof that he copied code from your repo then that is illegal. But if he copied the idea, there's nothing ethically wrong with that. The one who crossed an ethical line is you. You can't protect ideas, only actual code. What is ethically wrong is bullying a former intern with legal threats. You need to learn this, I guess the hard way.

Not just legal threats, the whole line about being “the most demanding intern we’ve ever had” was an ad hominem attack that was completely out of line. It was cruel, mean, unnecessary, and unprofessional.

[deleted]

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

#866

Post by llaolleh »

This is a PR disaster.

It's really hard to put a finger on who is in the wrong, because both the former intern(FI) and CEO screwed up.

Out of so many things to build that could be fun, it's wrong to build something that you worked on, where a really good engineer/founder took you under their wings, taught you a ton. To take that and open source the secret sauce of a fragile startup in a competitive market... that's wrong. To publicly show confidential emails without warning - raises eyebrows. And if he is blocking out that much text, then this leads me to conclude he is downplaying their hardwork and innovation.

However, it's wrong to threaten a young budding programmer with money and lawyers and brag about how we are not small anymore, and we have money now(20 million), which is not a lot in my opinion. They haven't built a moat yet.

I really think all of this could have been avoided if the CEO took a more sequential and slower approach.

1. Ask the former intern to take it down nicely. If he says no, then you could ask him to close source certain parts of the program, and drop a backlink to Replit. The CEO could have taken a softer approach - you only take out the big stick when absolutely necessary.

2. He should have gotten on the call after the former intern asked him THREE times pleading to talk to him. I don't think it's right to treat a former starry eyed programmer who respects you like that - to outright ghost him... You spent 3 months mentoring the young grasshopper. I didn't like the way he treated that intern, and let the problem fester. That's not right.

To me the right move is for CEO to be the bigger man, apologize, and try to make it right with OP. That's my assessment, but there could be more to the story...

I would also like to note that this is why you NEVER impulsively write emails late at night when you're brain is tired and judgement a little compromised after a LONG day.

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

#867

Post by [deleted] »

rurabe wrote: post #827
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…

with regard to ethics, two plausibly valid options: either you believe that people should act ethically even if that means forgoing actions that they are legally allowed to make. if you believe that, isn't it wrong to build a free, open source competitor using all the knowledge you just got from working inside a company? or: you believe that business is the law of the jungle, and everyone is free to do whatever they…

[deleted]

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

#868

Post by onion2k »

amasad wrote: post #682
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…

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…

there is some line that it's unethical to cross in copying a former employer's product

I wonder how many YC startups came about from employees of a company failing to get buy-in from their employer about a better way to solve a problem and leaving to start their own company to do it. Many of those will surely have copied large aspects of their former employers' products, including the flaws.

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

#869

Post by bluepnume »

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…

> Hey everyone, I want to apologize for the inappropriate use of power 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 that I now have a responsibility towards our community and supporters to be kind and model better behavior. I'm sorry I let you down and I promise to do better in the future.

Fixed it for ya!

Post reply on HN