Comment by jfrunyon
5 years ago
I fail to see how "you can't copy our product" is the same as "restrain[ing] from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind".
(That also says nothing about whether such a contract has or has not been signed by the relevant parties.)
As always seem to need a lawyer to be absolutely sure about any complex matter of law but it looks to me like creating even an identical product which this is not would fall within the scope of "any lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind" for clarity I read that as you can't stop a person from doing any of the above from a b and c rather than you can't stop someone from doing all of a b c.
I don't think Repl.it has a leg to stand on they just have a pile of money and the presumption of being willing and able to hire a shark in a suit to ruin someone's life with a baseless suit filed for the sake of harassment.
Copyright infringement is not a lawful profession, trade, or business.
It's not clear to me that implementing the same concept after having seen and written some of their code constitutes copyright infringement.
If you hire an intern to work on your code base you own merely own the work that person creates for the duration of their internship. Your piddling money doesn't buy you the general knowledge of how such a solution works any more than an auto shop acquires by dint of buying a few hours of labor owns the mechanics understanding of how a transmission works.
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