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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

#941

Post by kreddor »

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.

It will be thrown back in your face if the apology comes out as insincere. I guess the lesson is to not apologize unless you really mean it.

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

#942

Post by tavish1 »

This guy handled this as best as can be. The relationship with this company, though 'healed' is basically just a burned bridge, because of the CEO's manipulative behavior, no fault of this guy. The biggest mistake of the CEO is equating an intern with someone who probably doesn't enough about copyright laws and open source licenses and will scare easy. Good on them, and looking at their website, the projects they have listed are excellent, and they need not worry about this company. If your product (which is not novel) can be replaced by someone's hobby project, you should probably diversify.

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

#943

Post by politelemon »

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…

Your (non)apology is insincere and it is quite obvious that you don't really mean it. Looking at the latest communications with the intern[1], you are 'giving him permission' which isn't yours to give. And further, you have quoted them out of context. Neither of these actions indicate that you are in any way remorseful, nor do you see what you are doing wrong.

You haven't let _us_ down, you are only harming yourself and your company. I believe what you need is some self reflection, and a PR agent who can handle these situations for you with bland neutral language. Without these you will never do better in the future.

[1] https://intuitiveexplanations.com/assets/replit-email-9.png

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

#944

Post by raducu »

smnrchrds wrote: post #344
codingdave wrote: post #111

> Naturally, I took down my project right away... So a CEO bullied you. He threatened to have lawyers look at something, accused you of behaving poorly, and accused you of being difficult. He is being manipulative. He is trying to guilt / scare you into stopping. And it worked. For all readers... do not be afraid of lawyers. Especially if nobody has even talked to them yet. Lawyers do not like to lose cases, so will…

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…

Not just the lawyers, but future employers as well.

It doesn't matter what the value proposition was, this will be a stain on his name "the guy who open sources the stuff he likes in our design/projects"

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

#945

Post by ALittleLight »

Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL wrote: post #767
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…

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…

I think people should have more humility. Yes, he was wrong to be a jerk over email and threaten his former intern. However, apologizing for bad behavior and stating what you will do to correct it is what we should hope people who act inappropriately do. When they do act this way, it's wrong to heap more scorn on them, even if it does feel good.

Have you ever been obnoxious to anyone? How would you hope others would treat your apologies for poor behavior?

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

#946

Post by marcus_cemes »

As part of my summer internship, I had to sign a similar "anti-competion clause", stating I couldn't work in any similar company or compete in the same domain for the next 5 years. I'm a 20-year-old student, I'll be working on the marketing team to assist with web design and photography for a few weeks in a bio-medical start-up. Is it really necessary? I feel that it does more damage to me than the company by limiting my employment choices in the near future, I'm there to promote the company, not steal years of research.

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

#950

Post by olswan »

Well done for...

1. Not reacting back in an unprofessional manner which I can assume would be easy to do so as you put some hours into the project

2. Taking this all in your stride and in a way getting more attention to your skill set than the original idea would of done

Congrats!

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