Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

This item was in the news a few days ago. I'd like to know people's thoughts.

I'm torn. On the one hand, it erodes trust in all open source software. On the other hand, it selectively targets the aggressor nations in an illegal and immoral war. But where do we draw the line? If you have access to modify critical open soure software, what happens if, for example, you oppose a state government that passes, or tries to pass, anti-LGBTQ legislation (currently in progress in at least 33 states). Is it then fair game to target computer systems in those states?

And if your problem is that this code affects people not directly involved in the waging of the war, or possibly not even indirectly involved, how does this differ from economic sanctions that do the same thing, but for far greater numbers of people?

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Member Avatar for rproffitt

In the past if you issued code that was outside the scope of the app, you would be banned from contributing to the code base.

I'll refrain from a long analysis here and say the contributor's rights should be lost.

commented: Spot on! +0
Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

So basically, it was a (professional) suicide mission. Regardless of the consequences to him, do you think he did the right thing? Throwing yourself on the grenade to save others is a noble thing, but it comes at a high cost.

Edited by Reverend Jim
Member Avatar for rproffitt

This action could undermine the whole concept of open-source software. Putting the power back in the hands of Microsoft and Apple.

Given how this could damage the trust that we gave open-source I'm going to write that the price beyond the personal price is too high.

commented: Not really. It undermines the trust in that specific package and specifically it's mechanisms for vetting contributions. Not all of open source +0
Member Avatar for jwenting

Which shows again how important it is to have proper code review processes and things like that in place, even for open source projects.
A properly run project wouldn't have had this problem as the code in question would never have been approved for inclusion in the first place.

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