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Several Linux Kernel Driver Maintainers Removed Due to Association to Russia

21 points by voxadam 2y ago

AStonesThrow 2y ago
[flagged]
- talldayo 2y ago
  > Don't simply erase their acknowledgements and appropriate their code. To be fair - anyone contributing to the GPL ought to be aware of the terms of their license. They're not "appropriating" something that was consciously and deliberately licensed by the contributors for these exact terms of ownership. These people probably did nothing wrong, but sanctions are sanctions and they apply unilaterally. Their best path of recourse is to fork Linux (which is entirely legal) and continue their work on a downstream basis with patches that can be merged into the main branch.
  - trod123 2y ago
    > To be fair - anyone contributing to the GPL... I agree, and also to add another point, this actually provides some protection to those authors. If you are a maintainer with credentials that allow you to push code into the kernel/driver then you are at risk for coercion and can be leveraged by hostile entities. If those credentials has to go through a secondary or tertiary review process (due to the increased risk), its less likely given the limited benefit that leveraging these authors might be useful. The same would obviously be true for China as well.
  - mokoshhydro 2y ago
    This has nothing to do with sanctions. Huawei is under same level of sanctions, but maintainers with `xxx@huawei.com` are not removed. Linux Foundation silently run some "No Russians" campaign. That's not a problem by itself, but they should make a public statement about this.
    - talldayo 2y ago
      The Linux foundation literally cannot stop people from using and modifying the Linux kernel. The only thing they've done is removed their maintainer privileges which is something they can reprise themselves in a fork. If these individuals want to keep contributing, they can do so downstream. Huawei's contributions to Linux have always been controversial, and the moment they start war in Taiwan like Russia did in Ukraine you can bet your bottom dollar they're all getting thrown out the window. There will be no legal reparations between the Linux foundation and Russia/China because neither country respects US jurisdiction in the first place. So instead, this is going to continue until the aforementioned nations decide to grow up and stop being hermit kingdoms.
      - mokoshhydro 2y ago
        Do I understand you correctly, that one nation has right to kill million civilians in Iraq, provoke revolts all around the world, etc -- and others "should grow up" and have no right to protect their own borders?
        talldayo 2y ago
        I'm telling you that Russia could take them to court if any international superpowers treated them with respect in the first place. Russia violated arms reduction treaties, invoked war on multiple territories they do not own, ignores the world stage and encourages fascist-levels of dictatorship under the guise of a democracy perpetually voting in Putin. Nobody cares! Those developers can go piss and moan to a state that probably doesn't take them seriously and is more likely to arrest them than support them. The consequences of Russia's anti-globalist stance is going to be felt by their citizens, even the innocent ones. But this is what Russia claims they want, so we give it to them by the truckload. It's the same terrible fate China claimed their citizens wanted so bad when they put up the Great Firewall to "keep bad influences out". If you seriously believe in the color revolution nonsense then you've fallen for exactly the kind of myopic paranoia that Putin wants you to believe. I don't think the United States is always correct, which is why we exercise a functioning democracy and rely on the ongoing feedback from diplomatic peers and voting citizens.
- josephcsible 2y ago
  Isn't this the "who's currently in charge of maintaining the code" file and not the "who originally wrote this code" file?
fuoqi 2y ago
China next? And then they cry that Linux does not have enough maintainers...
- hulitu 2y ago
  Not only. Basically US said (like France with Durov), you are either with us or against us. This will have a big influence on open source and trust in existing software distribution channels.
- culi 2y ago
  It's not really their fault. It's Biden's fault really. They are required to be in compliance with the US' sanctions. Biden's executive order explicitly called out Software contributions. And due to a Northern California court case from 2017 any contributions to GPL'd software is liable
- Vilian 2y ago
  If they start bombing Taiwan sure

21 points by voxadam 2y ago

AStonesThrow 2y ago

[flagged]

talldayo 2y ago
> Don't simply erase their acknowledgements and appropriate their code. To be fair - anyone contributing to the GPL ought to be aware of the terms of their license. They're not "appropriating" something that was consciously and deliberately licensed by the contributors for these exact terms of ownership. These people probably did nothing wrong, but sanctions are sanctions and they apply unilaterally. Their best path of recourse is to fork Linux (which is entirely legal) and continue their work on a downstream basis with patches that can be merged into the main branch.
- trod123 2y ago
  > To be fair - anyone contributing to the GPL... I agree, and also to add another point, this actually provides some protection to those authors. If you are a maintainer with credentials that allow you to push code into the kernel/driver then you are at risk for coercion and can be leveraged by hostile entities. If those credentials has to go through a secondary or tertiary review process (due to the increased risk), its less likely given the limited benefit that leveraging these authors might be useful. The same would obviously be true for China as well.
- mokoshhydro 2y ago
  This has nothing to do with sanctions. Huawei is under same level of sanctions, but maintainers with `xxx@huawei.com` are not removed. Linux Foundation silently run some "No Russians" campaign. That's not a problem by itself, but they should make a public statement about this.
  - talldayo 2y ago
    The Linux foundation literally cannot stop people from using and modifying the Linux kernel. The only thing they've done is removed their maintainer privileges which is something they can reprise themselves in a fork. If these individuals want to keep contributing, they can do so downstream. Huawei's contributions to Linux have always been controversial, and the moment they start war in Taiwan like Russia did in Ukraine you can bet your bottom dollar they're all getting thrown out the window. There will be no legal reparations between the Linux foundation and Russia/China because neither country respects US jurisdiction in the first place. So instead, this is going to continue until the aforementioned nations decide to grow up and stop being hermit kingdoms.
    - mokoshhydro 2y ago
      Do I understand you correctly, that one nation has right to kill million civilians in Iraq, provoke revolts all around the world, etc -- and others "should grow up" and have no right to protect their own borders?
      - talldayo 2y ago
        I'm telling you that Russia could take them to court if any international superpowers treated them with respect in the first place. Russia violated arms reduction treaties, invoked war on multiple territories they do not own, ignores the world stage and encourages fascist-levels of dictatorship under the guise of a democracy perpetually voting in Putin. Nobody cares! Those developers can go piss and moan to a state that probably doesn't take them seriously and is more likely to arrest them than support them. The consequences of Russia's anti-globalist stance is going to be felt by their citizens, even the innocent ones. But this is what Russia claims they want, so we give it to them by the truckload. It's the same terrible fate China claimed their citizens wanted so bad when they put up the Great Firewall to "keep bad influences out". If you seriously believe in the color revolution nonsense then you've fallen for exactly the kind of myopic paranoia that Putin wants you to believe. I don't think the United States is always correct, which is why we exercise a functioning democracy and rely on the ongoing feedback from diplomatic peers and voting citizens.
josephcsible 2y ago
Isn't this the "who's currently in charge of maintaining the code" file and not the "who originally wrote this code" file?

fuoqi 2y ago

China next? And then they cry that Linux does not have enough maintainers...

hulitu 2y ago
Not only. Basically US said (like France with Durov), you are either with us or against us. This will have a big influence on open source and trust in existing software distribution channels.
culi 2y ago
It's not really their fault. It's Biden's fault really. They are required to be in compliance with the US' sanctions. Biden's executive order explicitly called out Software contributions. And due to a Northern California court case from 2017 any contributions to GPL'd software is liable
Vilian 2y ago
If they start bombing Taiwan sure