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

981–990 of 1001 posts

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

#981

Post by jsiepkes »

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…

> I was also considering working for your company when considering changing forms, but I never would after hearing about this episode.

Some personal reflection might be in order here before making harsh judgements. Your current employer (Facebook, according to your bio) has done far worse far many times, wouldn't you agree?

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

#982

Post by tediousdemise »

I'm surprised this hasn't been censored yet. Companies have a lot of insulation from criticism on HN, particularly in the "Who Is Hiring" monthly threads and sponsored front page posts.

Apparently criticism of companies is "off topic" in such threads, so companies that openly engage in unethical or illegal behavior such as copyright infringement have free reign. Here's an example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27363823

Somebody needs to flush the toilet and get their shit out of here, it stinks.

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

#983

Post by PovilasID »

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…

I have received a few 'love letters' from lawyers and a few company CEOs. It is scary but first few times but don't forget it will cost them money to take you to court. So ask yourself: Will it cost them more money to sue you than they will save? In this case will it would cost them stupid amount of money to swat down every person like you.

P.S. I looked at using them but 'loved' totally transparent demo.

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

#984

Post by tolerant_sol »

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…

In this case I believe OP was trying to salvage their relationship. I would also like to note that OP does not seem to be operating on fear, hence the public disclosure.

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

#985

Post by ericlang »

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 don't like this lesson; I rather a shitty attempt at an apology than no apology at all, even if it's obvious this apology would've never came without the attention of this post blowing up.

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

#986

Post by davidhariri »

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.

My reaction as well. I’ve used Replit lots. It’s great! No offence to Radon, but I would not consider his project a threat to Replit. The best case scenario is it’s a price-sensitive OSS alternative which would naturally have a much much smaller market. Interesting that the CEO was so threatened by this.

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

#988

Post by panphora »

Ontol wrote: post #971
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…

Intresting fact from 2011: "Second, 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." ( http://www.codecademy.com/resources/blog/amjad-joins-codecad... ) Hmmm...

Wow, beautiful find. This should be upvoted more! The hypocrisy is rich.

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

#989

Post by [deleted] »

stevenhuang wrote: post #975
shapiro92 wrote: post #918

on a seriously technical point of view. It is obvious the person kept the code repository and when making a new project the commit history (or part of it) moved together. So excluding how the CEO acted, it is obvious the intern has the codebase (or part of it) and I am pretty sure that under their contract they are not allowed to do what they did. As for the way they approach things, ye the CEO is from YC getting pra…

> It is obvious the person kept the code repository and when making a new project the commit history (or part of it) moved together What? There is no indication of that. What are you trying to say?

[deleted]

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

#990

Post by fouric »

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.

"Never apologize to a mob."
Post reply on HN