Their apology was excellent... > > We sincerely apologize for any harm our research group did to the > Linux kernel community. Our goal was to identify issues

Their apology was excellent... > > We sincerely apologize for any harm our research group did to the > Linux kernel community. Our goal was to identify issues with the > patching process and ways to address them, and we are very sorry that > the method used in the “hypocrite commits” paper was inappropriate. As > many observers have pointed out to us, we made a mistake by not > finding a way to consult with the community and obtain permission > before running this study; we did that because we knew we could not > ask the maintainers of Linux for permission, or they would be on the > lookout for the hypocrite patches. While our goal was to improve the > security of Linux, we now understand that it was hurtful to the > community to make it a subject of our research, and to waste its > effort reviewing these patches without its knowledge or permission. > They explicitly admit fault and address what they did wrong and what they should have done better. You said that they didn't admit harm but the very first sentence is an acknowledgement and apology for the harm. In fact, they repeatedly address that they caused harm, and apologize: > we now understand that it was hurtful to the > community