Well the open source project did actually use similar Replit internals, I don't even work for Replit but with a lot of poking at their previous APIs and their own open source softwares I was able to figure that out. TBH that whole ordeal felt like a bar brawl between and employer and a fired employee, though. Neither handled the situation correctly and both were in the wrong.
Alright, let's assume that's true for a moment, for sake of argument. One of the parties we're talking about has massively more power than the other, so I'm inclined to have higher standards for them than that of an intern.
And in that you are correct! :) I 100% agree that there were better ways for Amjad to have handled that.
That being said Radon did copy some Replit internal design choices for Riju, which was completely overlooked because he was able to play off as the weaker individual. I'm sure in most other situations open-sourcing the work of another company, even if its something you designed as an intern, is not ethical in any case. Furthermore, Radon did not make any concession to the incident. He went on with life, after the incident and continues to portray Replit as the villain with references to the blog post and the way it was written to incriminate, not objectively oversee the problem.
In short, he used pathos to play y'all.
Meanwhile Amjad apologized _extensively_ for his actions and allowed Riju to continue, despite using what was previously (not anymore) Replit's internal design.
In the world of OSS people love the underdog and hate "big tech", when there's more gray area that could be explored. Not that this is a defense of Amjad or an attack on Radon, but there's more to this story that needs to be seen in order to get the bigger picture :).
Okay well what did he copy? Your mobile app demos don't seem to have any similar features to the Replit app; and based on the digging I did, there weren't any novel features that Replit could have stolen.
Furthermore, the Replit app was developed by a separate team that has been working for months on a product, not by one man. Most of the features were initially developed on the website and implemented into the app, and I see no evidence of any similar features _at all_ in the video demos of your application. Certainly no copied UI/UX features and no actual IDE features.
The AI models that Replit trained were done using the latest in technology, not anything that was available over two years ago - hell they implemented OpenAI's Whisper voice recognition AI within weeks after it was released.
Beyond the first three sentences of this post, it spirals into a rant about Amjad's alliance with Russians? and then a comment afterwards calls for anti-fraud organizations to investigate Amjad being "related to the russian capital and money laundering". I say this post is trying to grab attention using pathos from the Ukrainian crisis and past trending hits from HN.
Before I get flamed in the comments, I would like to preface by saying I have my own opinions and am not a Replit stan haha. I did my research before arriving to the conclusions above. If Victor can provide some evidence that refutes my claims and shows correlations of novel ideas (I'm looking specifically at the AI features cause those were the most recent of Replit's releases) then I would be persuaded to believe otherwise.
You've misanalyzed the features. Please check my comments
- Amjad said "interesting" then said "not clear" and realized 3 key features asap https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33268592 then I see twitter smiles only from him. Here is $1B in the check
There are a lot of features in the replit, but he implemented my project after the letter to Amjad. 4k HN toppic just confirms it. I couldn't believe it would happen so fast and it would be Amjad. Why no one else?
I wouldn't be writing if I hadn't been involved with the issue for over ten years and hadn't been a mobile development evangelist. There are few such people and Amjad is not one of them.
About russians: I just assumed about russian capital, since only russians have an ideology to destroy Ukrainians by any means, and if the Amjad has Russian investors, then this is a problem. Our team has survived many ethnically targeted attacks since the Russian hybrid aggression has been going on since 2014 when russians shot down the MH17 airplane. All these years, the main methods were related to the theft of money, for example, a project where I had $2M stock options in 2008 was stolen from us. Therefore, there was a press and I wrote to Amjad asking for help. But this requires a separate thread.
PS: Of course, we live in a complex system of technologies and startups. And I must say that many technologies/projects/startups have already been stolen from me and I am a security expert and many projects have been destroyed. So I made titanic work for the project that is technically difficult to steal and Amjad proved it.
a) you have not specifically made comparisons to the Replit app and your app to point out exactly what was copied, all ive seen so far is just you flaunting your reputation and saying he did without actually proving anything
b) if you did make something you planned on getting investments for, why did you not copyright your ideas and your code? if its not copyrighted or anything you basically did that to yourself.
c) if you did copyright your ideas or code, why are you posting here instead of filing a legal complaint
d) From what I understand there was a dedicated team that made the mobile app and while I can’t personally affirm how much of an influence amjad actually had over the development of the app, it seems to me like the team was mostly independent from amjad
your whole post just seems like its 50% bragging and 50% complaining with zero evidence
if you’re being serious about this you should really edit your post to contain direct comparisons instead of just spewing about “amjad copied my idea” with little to no explination.
- Mobile IDE: this is not something completely novel, there have been code editors for Android since forever. Replit created a mobile editor with a novel UI/UX and implemented their existing Goval Protocol (one I have studied extensively haha) into the application. Furthermore you can't claim the idea of a "Mobile IDE" can be stolen, its not a feature and that's like saying "Mobile Notes" can be a stolen concept. Not copying you so far.
- Real-Time Reverse Debugger: Replit uses Replay.io for time travel debugging, I've been around to watch that implementation grow. Amjad invests in Replay.io because Replit uses it xD. Replay.io has existed for some time, and on the topic of why Amjad didn't invest in you - you didn't present well (no offense). He's a busy man and your product didn't strike him immediately, that's okay move on the the next investor.
- Full git and video history: I might not be interpreting this one correctly so I'm sorry if i get this wrong, but version control has existed for some time. You can't say version control in IDEs is novel, everything from Atom and VSC to Jetbrains IDEs use it.
and the other thing you mentioned:
- Team Development: Replit is literally the frontiers person when it comes to live code editing and multiplayer. You cannot say this was copied they had this long before you started developing in 2020.
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When you say "I just show Amjad the direction, and he completely ignored me" I'm sorry but not really, the concept of a Replit App has been in the works for some time, you just have to keep in mind Replit is a startup and its moving and hiring at its own pace. As I said before, Amjad might not have invested in you because you didn't present well. The opportunity was lost, its okay move on. You were building an existing product in a new world, but the big dog arrived.
I can't say I understand what it would feel like to have a project I've been developing for two years suddenly be thrown into the shadows because a bigger company came by with their product, but I know it doesn't justify Russophobia. I'm aware of the situation in Ukraine, but you don't need to drag politics and slander into HN for the sake of besmirching someone. Your comments draw too eerie a similarity with antisemitism in Nazi Germany. If you are going to continue defending your product and this idea that it was stolen, at least drop the politics they're unjustified.
I have given enough facts and it is possible to generate infinite recursions. I'm a pioneer in many things, like making the first phones in the 90s. I know what unfair competition is.
This is not politics, the developer Rails was killed yesterday and Linkedin is full of this. I advise you to come to Kyiv and live under Russian-Iranian investments for at least 3 days. Then back to normal world and say just 'politics'. 50+ developers was killed already and they try to kill more. Today is the 238th day of Russian aggression in the center of Europe. You are either young or not in the subject or a russian bot. There is no point in continuing the discussion.
You keep refusing to elaborate, and you keep saying you have examples which you wont provide, and frankly the situation in Ukraine isn’t a free pass for you to be making such boldly stupid claims without supporting them in any way, you provide zero proof for anything and just keep spouting about being a “pioneer”. Obviously I understand that the situation in Ukraine is terrible right now, and I wish you all the best in that regard, but using the situation for sympathy and to support your baseless allegations is frankly ridiculous by any standard.
Thank you for supporting Ukraine, but the problem is not in Ukraine. Ukraine is an example of what a global catastrophe is happening to humanity in general. You can freely kill people and steal ideas, launder money and destroy technologists. Unfortunately, the first space war is taking place in Ukraine.
I am well versed in startups and technology, so I have a big reason to believe that this is exactly the case. Unfortunately, the detailed answer at the moment is a problem for me, and much more bla-bla-bla is unacceptable. I gave the facts, everything is simple.
Also, I looking forward to a post with the technical details of my project, which may help you understand why there is no patent or why such conclusions. But need to wait for my editor
