[sundarurfriend]

If this had been private communication, sure.

By putting this on Twitter, it immediately gets turned into something that could spawn clickbait headlines and could tarnish the company's reputation long term. Maybe John didn't mean for any of that, but his tweets don't mention the MIT licence initially and seem like they're building up an allegation.

I think Chris responded exactly like a for-profit company's CEO should, pre-emptively countering tech journalist headlines, clearly and concisely describing the situation, and still reaching out for the potential of collaboration.