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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

#991

Post by jcrites »

antonzabirko wrote: post #276
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…

Sorry, are you going to pay my legal fees? If yes, please by all means reach out.

You don't have contact information listed in your profile. I posted a comment in this thread offering to pay for your legal fees (and many people, upon seeing my comment, contacted me offering to help). It'd be helpful if you could publish your contact info in your HN profile too.

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

#992

Post by jfrunyon »

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.

My concern is that determining whether or not they are needed could be a lengthy task. I'm not saying that most of them would lie and say it would take longer than that.

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

#993

Post by cutemonster »

yarcob wrote: post #962
devoutsalsa wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes both ways. Imagine Replit’s attorney going after OP. If OP didn’t take down the site, then suing them is going to be a huge expense & waste of time. Is Replit really gonna pay some corporate attorney $600-ish per hour to harass someone? You don’t even need a lawyer to show up in court and say “I’m a broke ass new grad, and these guys are trying to take down my website. I don’t even know why, but I’m dragging…

Did you read any of the stories what a tech company did to an employee who complained about safety issues at the plant? Tried to get him SWATted up by lying to the police. People are extremely petty, and just because people have well paid jobs doesn't mean they are reasonable in any way.

If you post a link, it'd be interesting to have a look

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

#994

Post by Grustaf »

burnished wrote: post #411
Grustaf wrote: post #107

It would be helpful if you could post the designs side by side so we could all judge if you have copied the design. If you haven't, they are simply in the wrong and you should re-publish you site. If your design is a copy, then most of your arguments are not very relevant. > Every similarity between my project and Replit can be explained by looking only at GitHub repositories and blog posts that were published online…

Honestly I think they make their point quite well, but some of those bullets points came across as a young person adding any argument they could think of/needing some validation on these points with the net effect that it weakened the overall argument (by being easily nitpicked).

Yep, good point. That’s how it comes cross.

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

#995

Post by lewich »

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…

Probably he is just afraid of "cancel culture" and consequences. Otherwise would not apologize.

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

#996

Post by zaczekadam »

mpeg wrote: post #76

Poor form by the repl.it CEO here, bullying a junior employee to take their weekend project down. If your product is threatened by this, it's probably not a very good product. I've used Repl.it multiplayer to interview candidates in the past, will probably look for an alternative in the future. If anyone knows of one that supports non-web languages (I already use codesandbox for frontend) like python, etc. this is th…

I just emailed you!

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

#997

Post by kordlessagain »

ping_pong wrote: post #825
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…

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.

I’m just curious what racist rant you replied to me!!! :P

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

#998

Post by choppaface »

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 terms of legal liability, it would be a lot harder for Amjad Masad to prove damages from this post versus the webapp. Especially since Masad's emails are there in plain site. It's sad riju is offline, but at least there's a record that it happened. Putting ethics aside, I think this move reduces financial risk at least.

But this situation is terrible. I've seen multiple YC CEOs bring out the fancy lawyers that they got connected to through the incubator. In some cases, these were multi-million dollar arguments that really arose because the YC CEO screwed up (in very very basic ways!) and then the they got butthurt when things didn't go their way. And YC is connected with they very kinds of lawyers who are happy to make money off of bullying their way through "deals."

Why does YC keep funding CEOs who get their egos bruised so easily? If you're a CEO and you're using your legal leverage irresponsibly, just imagine what the company books must look like.

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

#1000

Post by dllthomas »

strbean wrote: post #422
debacle wrote: post #40

The only question that matters is "Did you sign something saying you agreed not to name something like this when you interned for Repl.it, and is it enforceable in your jurisdiction?" I think this makes Amjad look a bit like an ass, but I don't know him personally or your relationship with him or repl.it

Seems like both Radon and Repl.it are based in California. If that is correct, then non-compete agreements are only enforceable for founders/partners in a business.

Not that it presumably applies here, but IIUC they're also enforceable if you're basically paying the former employee (most of?) their salary for the duration of the agreement.
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