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it feels like you're intentionally missing the point here. If repl.it is acting as if they believe they have legal leverage, why respond by giving them more lev

by zemo 5y ago

it feels like you're intentionally missing the point here. If repl.it is acting as if they believe they have legal leverage, why respond by giving them more leverage?

anm89 5y ago
Ah now I understand. He should just go get his own highly paid lawyers and dig down for a lengthy legal battle. His own VC guys will foot the bill! Or he could get on the top spot of HN for free and get a massive amount of community support, potentially people who actually will foot his legal bill, for the price of a few hours of writing a blog post.
- stale2002 5y ago
  > He should just go get his own highly paid lawyers and dig down for a lengthy legal battle. Have you considered that what the person did in this situation was actually illegal? Yes, when you do illegal things, it is difficult to defend them in court. But that doesn't make him in the right. It doesn't even look like he was going to be sued, since he took down the website, and apologized. It was the kid who went public with all of this, in order to get the clicks and likes.
  - shkkmo 5y ago
    Hmmm... what laws do you think might have been broken here?
    - stale2002 5y ago
      Any numerous things having to do with copyright/intellectual property, or something related to any of that general category of stuff. The person used to work at that company, and then they built a similar project, that looks really similar to that other product. So something to do with design copyright. You can't just copy someone else's designs, in a similar space, at a company that you used to work for. You probably run afoul of something having to do with intellectual property or design copyright.
      - mynameisvlad 5y ago
        What is your exact definition of "design copyright"? And keep in mind, repl.it explicitly does not have any patents (which would be the actual way for protecting an idea or design in the way you're thinking) for anything they have done.
        stale2002 5y ago
        I am not referencing a specific law. I am talking about intelectual property laws in general. Surely people should be able to see how if you work at a company, and then release a product that copies what that other companies does, and you build something in such a way as it looks very similar to that other product, then there is a pretty big risk of running into intellectual property law or any number of legal issues. This is a broad category of laws, where you could run into numerous issues. That should be pretty clear.
        mynameisvlad 5y ago
        And I'm asking you to specify exactly which laws you think this runs afoul of. You can't just handwave "copyright laws" away. Especially since there are no patents which protect the exact thing you're talking about. There is no such thing as "design copyright" other than actual, specific designs (fashion designs, specific graphics copy) that are copied. Ideas and software architectural designs are covered by patents. Something replit explicitly does not do.
        stale2002 5y ago
        > I'm asking you to specify exactly which laws There are a whole lot of laws related to intellectual property, employment, and contracts. It is a very wide field. When talking about this kind of stuff, most people have not memorized the exact line number, in the exact paragraph, of laws that cover all sorts of things. We are talking about hundreds or thousands of pages of law here. There is a lot to cover. But the point is that there are a lot of laws, related to all of that. And it is should be pretty clear how there is a risk to run afoul of something having to do with intellectual property, contracts, or the like, if you do something similar to what this kid did.
  - anm89 5y ago
    What is your legal theory regarding what's illegal here?
    - dang 5y ago
      > Lol, care to share your legal theory here Perry Mason? Hey, please don't break the site guidelines by being an asshole on HN, regardless of how wrong someone else is, or you feel they are, or how badly anyone else has behaved or you feel they have. It only makes things even worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Edit: it looks like we've had to warn you about this more than once before. Would you mind reviewing the guidelines and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart? You can easily still make all your substantive points that way. Edit 2: thanks for the edit; that's indeed much better.
omega3 5y ago
What leverage?
- zemo 5y ago
  that's a much more reasonable question and would be a reasonable response, but OP decided that instead of asking that question, he's rather provoke repl.it. If they had no leverage before, asking what leverage isn't going to increase how much leverage they have. But this? This post seems to me like it's more likely to increase repl.it's leverage against OP than the reverse.
- anm89 5y ago
  To be fair, the one massive piece of leverage they have is their bankroll, regardless of the legal validity of their claim. However this just highlights the futility of turning this into a bankrolled lawyer battle.
vidarh 5y ago
There's next to no additional leverage here, and bad PR is the best leverage you can get if you can't afford expensive lawyers.

by zemo 5y ago

it feels like you're intentionally missing the point here. If repl.it is acting as if they believe they have legal leverage, why respond by giving them more leverage?

anm89 5y ago

Ah now I understand. He should just go get his own highly paid lawyers and dig down for a lengthy legal battle. His own VC guys will foot the bill! Or he could get on the top spot of HN for free and get a massive amount of community support, potentially people who actually will foot his legal bill, for the price of a few hours of writing a blog post.

stale2002 5y ago
> He should just go get his own highly paid lawyers and dig down for a lengthy legal battle. Have you considered that what the person did in this situation was actually illegal? Yes, when you do illegal things, it is difficult to defend them in court. But that doesn't make him in the right. It doesn't even look like he was going to be sued, since he took down the website, and apologized. It was the kid who went public with all of this, in order to get the clicks and likes.
- shkkmo 5y ago
  Hmmm... what laws do you think might have been broken here?
  - stale2002 5y ago
    Any numerous things having to do with copyright/intellectual property, or something related to any of that general category of stuff. The person used to work at that company, and then they built a similar project, that looks really similar to that other product. So something to do with design copyright. You can't just copy someone else's designs, in a similar space, at a company that you used to work for. You probably run afoul of something having to do with intellectual property or design copyright.
    - mynameisvlad 5y ago
      What is your exact definition of "design copyright"? And keep in mind, repl.it explicitly does not have any patents (which would be the actual way for protecting an idea or design in the way you're thinking) for anything they have done.
      - stale2002 5y ago
        I am not referencing a specific law. I am talking about intelectual property laws in general. Surely people should be able to see how if you work at a company, and then release a product that copies what that other companies does, and you build something in such a way as it looks very similar to that other product, then there is a pretty big risk of running into intellectual property law or any number of legal issues. This is a broad category of laws, where you could run into numerous issues. That should be pretty clear.
        mynameisvlad 5y ago
        And I'm asking you to specify exactly which laws you think this runs afoul of. You can't just handwave "copyright laws" away. Especially since there are no patents which protect the exact thing you're talking about. There is no such thing as "design copyright" other than actual, specific designs (fashion designs, specific graphics copy) that are copied. Ideas and software architectural designs are covered by patents. Something replit explicitly does not do.
        stale2002 5y ago
        > I'm asking you to specify exactly which laws There are a whole lot of laws related to intellectual property, employment, and contracts. It is a very wide field. When talking about this kind of stuff, most people have not memorized the exact line number, in the exact paragraph, of laws that cover all sorts of things. We are talking about hundreds or thousands of pages of law here. There is a lot to cover. But the point is that there are a lot of laws, related to all of that. And it is should be pretty clear how there is a risk to run afoul of something having to do with intellectual property, contracts, or the like, if you do something similar to what this kid did.
- anm89 5y ago
  What is your legal theory regarding what's illegal here?
  - dang 5y ago
    > Lol, care to share your legal theory here Perry Mason? Hey, please don't break the site guidelines by being an asshole on HN, regardless of how wrong someone else is, or you feel they are, or how badly anyone else has behaved or you feel they have. It only makes things even worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Edit: it looks like we've had to warn you about this more than once before. Would you mind reviewing the guidelines and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart? You can easily still make all your substantive points that way. Edit 2: thanks for the edit; that's indeed much better.

omega3 5y ago

What leverage?

zemo 5y ago
that's a much more reasonable question and would be a reasonable response, but OP decided that instead of asking that question, he's rather provoke repl.it. If they had no leverage before, asking what leverage isn't going to increase how much leverage they have. But this? This post seems to me like it's more likely to increase repl.it's leverage against OP than the reverse.
anm89 5y ago
To be fair, the one massive piece of leverage they have is their bankroll, regardless of the legal validity of their claim. However this just highlights the futility of turning this into a bankrolled lawyer battle.

vidarh 5y ago

There's next to no additional leverage here, and bad PR is the best leverage you can get if you can't afford expensive lawyers.