Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

Post by ahtihn » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

grishka wrote: post #77

Latty wrote: post #34

Do people think the people protesting like this don't know that this is damaging? They presumably feel that the issue at hand is more important than that damage. Every protest every has been met with "but this protest is being done the wrong way, don't inconvenience me", but that's the point: protest has to disrupt things to make people take notice and make changes. Would I do this? No. I don't think it's effective o…

As a Russian, you already notice this and you already have many things in your everyday life disrupted. Someone deleting your files as an act of shoving politics where it doesn't belong helps absolutely nothing. If anything, it's not an act of protest, it's an act of vandalism. Causes don't matter here — vandalism is simply never okay.

Post by AllegedAlec » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

FDSGSG wrote: post #336

seanw444 wrote: post #4

I just don't understand what the node-ipc dev was expecting when he did that. "Hm, maybe if I put malware into a community-trusted module that destroys files of people in a certain geopolitical region, the countless innocent citizens that are affected will realize what they did wrong! Wait, who am I actually targeting again?"

I just don't understand what Western governments were thinking when they sanctioned Russian businesses. "Hm, maybe if I put laws into the books that destroy the economy of a country and drives people in a certain geopolitical region into poverty, the countless innocent citizens that affected will realize what they did wrong! Wait, who am I actually targeting again?" Oh wait.

Post by Brotkrumen » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

blueflow wrote: post #325

BaronVonSteuben wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but pointing out that the emperor has no clothes is mean, so we need to pretend not to notice. Despite our modern day knowledge that most human behavior is almost entirely incentive-based (the hard part is identifying the incentive), we're still supposed to pretend that it's altrusim.

The good news, these people are easy to identify because their signalling is always in a very visible way. They want to be seen. And when you can identify them, you can avoid them.

Post by ahtihn » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:18 PM UTC

shkkmo wrote: post #90

Latty wrote: post #34

Do people think the people protesting like this don't know that this is damaging? They presumably feel that the issue at hand is more important than that damage. Every protest every has been met with "but this protest is being done the wrong way, don't inconvenience me", but that's the point: protest has to disrupt things to make people take notice and make changes. Would I do this? No. I don't think it's effective o…

The problem is that that the node.js filesystem deletion "protests" was an indiscriminate digital attack that harmed people who are doing a much better job of actively opposing the invasion. I believe that the developer who implemented that attack should face criminal charges. Our ability to trust our open source is a critical part of our economy. People who abuse that trust to directly harm others should know they w…

Post by hippich » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

jraph wrote: post #187

sirius87 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly it. For some people, a world that they relate to is coming to an end, and anything they could do, however insignificant, no matter what the side-effects or personal reputation cost, is worth doing. This isn't some brainy impact-analysis based action. "Something must be done". The disruptions caused by these rogue packages will make it to newspapers and the media, and maybe, just maybe, parrying the ne…

In that case, targeting only Russians is sub-optimal, They could as well have targeted everybody, it would have had more impact. There's no reason to target Russia inhabitants in particular, who, I would guess, are mostly against the war.