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The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

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Re: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

#31

Post by ndj7 »

dreamdu5t wrote: post #21
pc86 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine people actively avoid them if they plan on charging for something. I'm honestly not sure what you wanted. You contributed code to something, and people used it. Some of those happened to make money on code that included yours (I'm sure the impact yours had on their bottom line is debatable). Did you expect financial compensation? Did you just hope for whatever reason that nobody would make any money o…

I didn't want anything. I was stating why I mostly stopped contributing: Other people were making money off of my work without me being compensated. OSS is a vehicle for companies to exploit unpaid labor. The hacker community just hates to hear that.

OSS also empowers individuals to create great things - despite limited financial resources.

Re: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

#32

Post by forgottenpass »

pc86 wrote: post #25
dreamdu5t wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't want anything. I was stating why I mostly stopped contributing: Other people were making money off of my work without me being compensated. OSS is a vehicle for companies to exploit unpaid labor. The hacker community just hates to hear that.

> OSS is a vehicle for companies to exploit unpaid labor. OSS is freely given, sometimes by people who are paid to do exactly that. The term "unpaid labor" has a specific connotation akin to slavery or indentured servitude. The two are not comparable. Complaining that someone somewhere makes money (at best, indirectly ) from an OSS contribution is the same as complaining that Good Will resold my donation at a profit.

The term "unpaid labor" has a specific connotation akin to slavery or indentured servitude. The two are not comparable.

Is this a legal term of art or common knowledge definition? It was unknown to me so I've tried some googling and am turning up primarily volunteer work and unpaid internships under that title. I know wikipedia isn't the greatest source, but over there "unpaid work" is a class of things including both slavery and working at a family business or coop.

Re: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

#33

Post by vezzy-fnord »

glyph wrote: post #29
craigcabrey wrote: post #3

Is it just me or does this article twist the (rather simple) idea of meritocracy? What you contribute and the quality of what you contribute defines the respect and influence you receive as a result (in a given community, of course). I don't see how that can be tied into "normal" social statuses as this author is trying to imply. Thoughts?

"Meritocracy" is not a real concept of how to run a community, but rather a satirical term used to lampoon the idea that "merit" is a 1-dimensional concept which can be measured linearly and used to judge people and rank them. The term was invented as satire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Meritocracy Thinking that it's a good idea is like what happened with "waterfall" development. Someone described a…

That the term was coined in a satirical context does not mean the concept it describes is in any way discredited by default. The semiotics behind ideas are constantly evolving in any event.

Re: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

#34

Post by treve »

dreamdu5t wrote: post #21
pc86 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine people actively avoid them if they plan on charging for something. I'm honestly not sure what you wanted. You contributed code to something, and people used it. Some of those happened to make money on code that included yours (I'm sure the impact yours had on their bottom line is debatable). Did you expect financial compensation? Did you just hope for whatever reason that nobody would make any money o…

I didn't want anything. I was stating why I mostly stopped contributing: Other people were making money off of my work without me being compensated. OSS is a vehicle for companies to exploit unpaid labor. The hacker community just hates to hear that.

I think 'The Hacker Community' knows that others benefiting from code you freely provide is one of the extremely obvious side effects of open sourcing.

It sounds a bit like you're buying a round of beers for everyone in the bar, and then you're upset people didn't compensate you for it.

Re: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

#35

Post by pc86 »

> 52% of women caregivers with incomes at or below of the national median of $35k spend 20+ hours each week providing care. The largest racial demographics in this group are black and hispanic.

Are there many people, regardless of gender or race, who earn less than $35k/year and are in a position to contribute to OSS?

Re: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

#36

Post by agj »

pc86 wrote: post #7
dreamdu5t wrote: post #5

I stopped contributing OSS lately after seeing how many startups use some of my modules. Why should I work for free to help others profit? Yet if I use restrictive licenses people just avoid the software altogether. If my open-source software is successful I just end up being exploited financially. EDIT: Downvotes? I guess it's socially unacceptable to not want to contribute to OSS because someone else will just make…

Why not use a license that merely prohibits commercial use? And presumably the startups in question are actually adding some value to your code beyond just implementing it with a wrapper. It's not like they are building a business around your piece of code (or are they?)

Similarly, if your modules are that popular and causing enough of a support burden to result in resentment, maybe this is a signal of an opportunity?

If your code is popular, why not offer support to, or seek out sponsorship from, the companies that are using your modules/applications? A revenue-focused startup is probably a bad resource to tap for this. But getting a few companies to spread out a few hundred dollars each from their engineering/marketing budgets isn't completely unlikely.

Otherwise, you can always recite the age-old mantra to cleansing open source entitlement resentment: "Patches welcome."

Re: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

#37

Post by yaauie »

treve wrote: post #34
dreamdu5t wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't want anything. I was stating why I mostly stopped contributing: Other people were making money off of my work without me being compensated. OSS is a vehicle for companies to exploit unpaid labor. The hacker community just hates to hear that.

I think 'The Hacker Community' knows that others benefiting from code you freely provide is one of the extremely obvious side effects of open sourcing. It sounds a bit like you're buying a round of beers for everyone in the bar, and then you're upset people didn't compensate you for it.

Or more likely that you're buying a round of beers for everyone in the bar, and are just frankly exhausted by the continuing flood of entitled recipients complaining about the quality and/or usefulness of the beer.

Re: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

#39

Post by malandrew »

pc86 wrote: post #35

> 52% of women caregivers with incomes at or below of the national median of $35k spend 20+ hours each week providing care. The largest racial demographics in this group are black and hispanic. Are there many people, regardless of gender or race, who earn less than $35k/year and are in a position to contribute to OSS?

Excellent question. If you're in a position to contribute to OSS and earn less than that salary, you're likely living in another country where that salary is one of relative affluence (affording you the luxury of time to contribute to open source).

Re: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community (2013)

#40

Post by vidarh »

dreamdu5t wrote: post #21
pc86 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine people actively avoid them if they plan on charging for something. I'm honestly not sure what you wanted. You contributed code to something, and people used it. Some of those happened to make money on code that included yours (I'm sure the impact yours had on their bottom line is debatable). Did you expect financial compensation? Did you just hope for whatever reason that nobody would make any money o…

I didn't want anything. I was stating why I mostly stopped contributing: Other people were making money off of my work without me being compensated. OSS is a vehicle for companies to exploit unpaid labor. The hacker community just hates to hear that.

I contribute to OSS because I have no reasons not to, and often benefit:

I occasionally write stuff for my own use that might be of use to others. There's no downside to me if I release it, and the occasional upside.

Sometimes I need to apply a fix to some OSS project. Contributing helps me avoid having to maintain a fork.

Sometimes I write something at work that may be useful for others and convince my employers to let me open source it, and as a result I am also able to reuse the same software at home or in future jobs.

None of these have deprived me of income. Some of the work I was paid for. Some of it has indirectly led to income.

I find your expression of resentment curious. Their use of your software did not deprive you of anything other than in your own mind.

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