By publishing one single script - not likely. By publishing 1000 scripts - yes, you can, by polluting the public space and making it so much harder to find real

By publishing one single script - not likely. By publishing 1000 scripts - yes, you can, by polluting the public space and making it so much harder to find real supported code that can be relied upon. It's like throwing garbage on the street. One can won't do much, do it many times - and your neighborhood is a dump. Same argument as with spam. Sending an email is not a crime, and sending an email to somebody you didn't know to ask them maybe they want to do business with you is not that bad. Do it couple of millions of times, and it breaks the whole system. > What's actually harmful is the blind trust most developers have on adding dependencies without proper vetting. Now comes the victim blaming. Nope, the fact the people should verify stuff does not absolve the guilt of those who put garbage into the public space. On the contrary, they are making the problem so much worse. And yes, there are means to deal with the problem, but again "you can clean up" is not an argument that absolves the guilt of somebody who throws trash around. They are doing bad thing, and should feel bad about it.