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Should open source ban itself in China and Russia?
- h2odragon 4y agoLeave aside the prissy definition shaving argument of "can we call a license 'open source' if it has [geographic | national | ethical | racial ] restrictions"; there's guardians of the trademark get paid for that. The spirit of FOSS is the same spirit as old school "scientific inquiry"; that all thoughts can and should be shared because the benefits outweigh the costs of doing so. In that sense the freedom to publish, read, and use computer code should be just as inviolate as ever. In this specific context the notion that competing states would honor license restrictions seems silly; why should the USA not pirate China's new linux fork when it has advantages? What use then in language that prohibits such behavior when there's no structure of law to give it backing force?
- RobotToaster 4y agoRussia has already legalised piracy of software produced in states embargo it, so any licence change would be moot. If anything it could just incentivise Russian programmers to not release any modified source code. Not to mention any restriction on geographic usage would violate freedom 0, so any software imposing such a restriction would by definition no longer be FOSS.
- fortnum 4y agoWhich begs the question if we should not use Linux, considering the number of US contributions and the US being involved in countless illegal wars. The whole thing is absurd. Clownworld!