Comment by iabacu
5 years ago
This is bizarre.
If the intern did steal code, the CEO only wants the project to be taken down?
Any IP agreement worth their salt would require Replit to send a formal/legal request asking the intern to destroy and return any stolen IP.
So I call bullshit on the CEO, and the intern should probably sue Replit for slander.
> should probably sue Replit for slander.
If the CEO is making the stealing part up (seems likely) the intern probably could sue Replit. Intentional copyright infringement/trade secret violations are a crime and my understanding of US law (not a lawyer) is that that makes it actionable regardless of damages.
Should he though? If he wins it seems likely he'll get nominal damages. He'll have invested a huge number of hours of his life into it. He'll be risking being on the hook for some or all of his lawyers fees depend on how the judge feels about awarding costs.
It doesn't seem likely to be worth it. Public shaming of Replit like this is a very cost effective way of punishing Replit... the legal system not so much.
Exactly. If the source code (or parts thereof) where copied, you could easily say which parts by just putting both things side by side. The interns project was open source after all.
This way you had to expose your own code, but it would easily win you the case in the court of public opinion. The only reason not to do this (that I can think of) is that the intern did not actually copy your code.
Why on earth are people acting like this is bizarre.
Nothing about Repl.it is even remotely unique. And in fact, it seems like they're finally catching on (RE: their post about Nix). Egotistical CEO trying to protect their tiny moat? As typical as the sun shining.
Nix + Theia + a team of moderately dedicated folks could replicate the important parts of Repl.it in a month. I'd bet my fucking life on it. Mostly because I've done it and I'm a highly unmotivated pot-head.