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Former developer at software company deletes his code to protest its ties to ICE

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Re: Former developer at software company deletes his code to protest its ties to ICE

#21

Post by namewasmypw »

schmookeeg wrote: post #3

I expect that, to be ethically consistent, this developer will also return all salary or payments he received while creating this now-deleted code. I think leaving a job is a better protest than doing damage to your employer. And perhaps for his next contract, he might insert a clause limiting what his code can be used for. In limiting the utility of the code he sells, I expect he'd be taking a lesser pay rate for it…

> I think leaving a job is a better protest than doing damage to your employer

You either don't protest or you're very bad at it

Re: Former developer at software company deletes his code to protest its ties to ICE

#23

Post by brandmeyer »

moomin wrote: post #16
schmookeeg wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I overlooked that somehow. (pre-morning tea over here :) ) I haven't read many OSS licenses. Can't someone just publish an 'unethical' fork and life goes on?

Someone (Chef) has already unethically forked it.

Is it unethical, though? The entire point of OSS is that you cannot revoke the license once granted. A hostile fork is the expected result of Chef's actions.

The zeroth freedom is the freedom to use the software for any purpose whatsoever. That inherently must include purposes which the author finds unethical, even abhorrent.

Re: Former developer at software company deletes his code to protest its ties to ICE

#24

Post by sokoloff »

moomin wrote: post #16
schmookeeg wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I overlooked that somehow. (pre-morning tea over here :) ) I haven't read many OSS licenses. Can't someone just publish an 'unethical' fork and life goes on?

Someone (Chef) has already unethically forked it.

It's under Apache license. I think the ethics of code placed under that license include "you may use this; you may rely on being able to continue to use this; if you don't like the direction the main package is taking for whatever reason, you may fork it and [optionally] release your fork under Apache as well."

Re: Former developer at software company deletes his code to protest its ties to ICE

#25

Post by codegeek »

"Earlier today, a former Chef employee removed several Ruby Gems, impacting production systems for a number of our customers."

So the developer already had left the company but one of his own Open Source code hosted on his personal github was used in production by Chef Customers ? Really ? That is just Wow. I don't have any strong opinions on whether he did the right thing but this absolutely surprises me. Running a small company, I am very strict against any of us using any personal accounts for anything that impacts our company work especially production. This has to be a no no by default I would assume.

Re: Former developer at software company deletes his code to protest its ties to ICE

#26

Post by thrower123 »

mcguire wrote: post #17

" Another user pointed out that Chef isn’t the only company to profit from working with ICE. Microsoft has raked in $4.6 million, IBM has received $1.6 million, and CISCO has received about $500,000 through their work with ICE. " Those numbers seem very low. Is this just for one year or one contract?

The 4.6 million for Microsoft is just for Office 365 subscriptions, if I recall correctly.

Re: Former developer at software company deletes his code to protest its ties to ICE

#27

Post by extra88 »

bradleyjg wrote: post #20
moomin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think this tracks. I mean, the American Government is also part of the human race. Because we object to one part of the human race should we refuse to deal with any of it? Humans have to make moral choices about where they personally draw the line and where they draw the boundary. Around the organisation that falsely imprisons Americans and runs concentration camps seems like a starting point.

No one is in charge of making decisions for the human race. The President and Congress make decisions for all of the federal government. If you thought the Windows division of Microsoft was acting extremely unethically would you still do business with the XBox division? It’s one CEO and one board that runs both.

Yes, because I know from experience with large organizations that there can be a lot of variance between different parts of an organization. Also, relatively little that happens is directly controlled or decided at the top.

Re: Former developer at software company deletes his code to protest its ties to ICE

#29

Post by pertsix »

sethvargo wrote: post #28

Hi there. I’m around to answer any questions!

If I was you, I would not answer any questions, and I would consult a lawyer.

edit: Looks like they were public gems, but in general it's always good advice to consult a lawyer before disrupting commercial or public systems.

Re: Former developer at software company deletes his code to protest its ties to ICE

#30

Post by sethvargo »

schmookeeg wrote: post #3

I expect that, to be ethically consistent, this developer will also return all salary or payments he received while creating this now-deleted code. I think leaving a job is a better protest than doing damage to your employer. And perhaps for his next contract, he might insert a clause limiting what his code can be used for. In limiting the utility of the code he sells, I expect he'd be taking a lesser pay rate for it…

I am in the process of retroactively donating all profits from my personal book - Learning Chef.

I never received money from the code in question, but I’m still doing my personal best to offset impact.

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