Linux Dev's threaten to pull killswitch over CoC (somewhat clickbaity title)

[Trik'Stari]

Well, this looks interesting. An open letter has been posted to the Linux Kernal mailing List, which details how developers can retroactively rescind the licenses for their contributions made to the Linux Kernal. If people or companies continue using that code, now under a rescinded license, they are potentially open to copyright lawsuits.

 

Quote

Date	Thu, 20 Sep 2018 09:28:14 +0000
From	unconditionedwitness@redchan ...
Subject	Re: A Plea to Unfuck our Codes of Conduct

Regarding those who are ejected from the Linux Kernel Community after 
this CoC:

Contributors can, at any time, rescind the license grant regarding their 
property via written notice to those whom they are rescinding the grant 
from (regarding their property (code)) .

The GPL version 2 lacks a no-rescission clause (the GPL version 3 has 
such a clause: to attempt furnish defendants with an estoppel defense, 
the Linux Kernel is licensed under version 2, however, as are the past 
contributions).

When the defendants ignore the rescission and continue using the 
plaintiff's code, the plaintiff can sue under the copyright statute.

Banned contributors _should_ do this (note: plaintiff is to register 
their copyright prior to filing suit, the copyright does not have to be 
registered at the time of the violation however)

Additionally when said banned contributors joined the Linux team, they 
were under the impression that it was a meritocracy: in-fact this belief 
was stated or ratified by those within the governing body regarding 
Linux when the contributors began their work (whatever that body was at 
that time, it could have been simply Linus, or Linus and a few 
associates).

The remuneration for the work was implied to be, or perhaps stated, to 
be fame as-well as a potential increase in the contributors stature, in 
addition to membership in the Linux Kernel club or association, or 
whatever it is that the Linux Kernel Community actually is (which a 
court may determine... it is something, suffice to say).

Thusly for work, consideration was promised by (Linus? Others? There are 
years of mailing list archives with which to determine).

And now that consideration has been clawed-back and the contributors 
image has been tarnished.

Thus the worker did work, however the other side of the implied, or 
perhaps written (email memorandums), understanding has been violated 
(once the contributor has been banned under the new non-meritocratic 
"CoC").

Damages could be recovered under: breach of contract, quazi-contract, 
libel, false-light. (services rendered for the contractual claims, 
future lost income for the libel claims)

In addition to copyright claims. (statutory damages, profits)

For greatest effect, all rescission should be done at once in a bloc. 
(With other banned contributors).

Contributors: You were promised something, you laboured for that 
promise, and now the promise has become a lie. You have remedies 
available to you now, as-well as in the close future .

Additionally, regarding those who promoted the Code of Conduct to be 
used against the linux kernel contributors, knowing full well the effect 
it would have and desiring those effects; recovery for the ejected 
contributors via a tortious interference claim may be possible.

 

Richard Stallman has commented on this letter saying:

Quote

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

The developers of Linux, or any free program, can remove any and all
code, at any time, without giving a reason.  However, this doesn't
force others to delete that code from their own versins of the program.

They don't do this very often, because they have to pay the penalty:
they lose the functionality of the code they remove, unless they
replace it.

I am not part of Linux development.  Torvalds is no friend of mine,
and he advocates "open source" which disagrees with my views at the
level of basic values.  See
https://gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.

So I don't think I will comment on those internal aspects of Linux
development.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)

 

 

Source: https://lulz.com/linux-devs-threaten-killswitch-coc-controversy-1252/

 

There is a hell of a lot more information in the article, I have only posted the letter. This appears to only apply to the GNU Public License Version 2.

 

My thoughts: I think this is good. I don't think the CoC is a good thing and I think those trying to force it on the Linux community cannot be trusted to be impartial or fair. I think large parts of the CoC will result in objectively racist and sexist policies despite what its proponents claim. I think a lot of the assumptions made by those championing this CoC are, in their own right, racist and sexist.

[cj09beira]

Activists from the feminist and LGBTQIA+ communities have been trying to force the Linux project  PUTS ON BRAKES....

enough said, fu** thoses snowflakes

 

[jagdtigger]

#idiots....

(Its just so dumb that there is no better way to describe it.)

Edited September 23, 2018 by jagdtigger

[Brooksie359]

What is coc?

[Drak3]

6 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

What is coc?

The Chicken of Calamity.

 

Or the Code of Conduct.

[jagdtigger]

8 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

What is coc?

 

From Source:

Quote

The controversy
Activists from the feminist and LGBTQIA+ communities have been trying to force the Linux project to join the Contributor Covenant since at least 2015. The Contributor Covenant is an agreement to implement a special Code of Conduct (frequently CoC from now on) aimed at changing the predominantly white, straight, and male face of programming. CC’s Code of Conduct is controversial particularly because it allows anyone to be banned from contributing code for any reason, usually with no mechanism for oversight or accountability.

[Brooksie359]

7 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

 

From Source:

Ok that makes way more sense. You can promote people of various background to get into programming but putting rule in place to enforce it is dumb.  

[Trik'Stari]

4 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Ok that makes way more sense. You can promote people of various background to get into programming but putting rule in place to enforce it is dumb.  

It amounts more to "promoting people of various backgrounds except for one specific group of people, many of whom need to be gotten rid of" which is ironic considering that is what they allegedly are morally against.

[PlayStation 2]

5 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Ok that makes way more sense. You can promote people of various background to get into programming but putting rule in place to enforce it is dumb.  

That's how I feel about it. I have no issue in promoting anyone to get into programming. The more the merrier, and I wish I could've gotten more interest in programming. That being said, trying to forcibly add people who may not partake in that interest while discounting the demographic that tends to become programmers doesn't get anyone anywhere.

[D13H4RD]

1 minute ago, Trik'Stari said:

It amounts more to "promoting people of various backgrounds except for one specific group of people, many of whom need to be gotten rid of" which is ironic considering that is what they allegedly are morally against.

I often find these people to be the embodiment of racism.

 

So your weapon against racism is more racism? Huh.

[Brooksie359]

1 minute ago, Trik'Stari said:

It amounts more to "promoting people of various backgrounds except for one specific group of people, many of whom need to be gotten rid of" which is ironic considering that is what they allegedly are morally against.

It is a bit ironic that the best way to have a world free of discrimination would be to not take background into account at all. 

[asus killer]

i don't get any of this, is this like positive discrimination for linux programmers?

 

i had no idea programming for Linux was a white straight male thing. WTF

[GDRRiley]

4 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

It is a bit ironic that the best way to have a world free of discrimination would be to not take background into account at all. 

welcome to logic. Something they don't have.

[suicidalfranco]

Another case of: Get Woke Go Broke

[D13H4RD]

10 minutes ago, asus killer said:

i had no idea programming for Linux was a white straight male thing. WTF

More specifically, it’s something that just happens to be mostly done by white straight males.

 

There was no actual barrier to coding for Linux if you’re not a white straight male. If that really bothers you so much, I think you have bigger problems.

 

Forcing is not the way to go. Stop trying it you dickwads.

[jagdtigger]

6 minutes ago, asus killer said:

i had no idea programming for Linux was a white straight male thing. WTF

Its the same level of idiocy like saying  that calling the companion of Santa Claus Black Peter is racism....

[SimplyChunk]

I like where this world is heading and it's heading there in a hand basket lmao

[suicidalfranco]

16 minutes ago, asus killer said:

i don't get any of this, is this like positive discrimination for linux programmers?

 

i had no idea programming for Linux was a white straight male thing. WTF

Don't you know?

there's a white force in the ether that stops people that don't fit his image of programmer from voluntarily giving code for free to the Linux project and gain the privileged status of contributor 

[aezakmi]

Quote

coc: let's include every person no matter their race or gender and give them freedom of speech!!!1

anyone with IQ higher than 35: can white guys join too?

coc:

 

[Bananasplit_00]

1 hour ago, Trik'Stari said:

the copyright does not have to be registered at the time of the violation however)

dafuq? so someone could be using stuff under a free lisence that then the devs do a lisence switcharoo on and then sue the shit out of you for copyright? wtf

[cesrai]

43 minutes ago, asus killer said:

i don't get any of this, is this like positive discrimination for linux programmers?

 

i had no idea programming for Linux was a white straight male thing. WTF

It only makes sense, that until now that most of developers are ,,white straight males'' because well after all they fucking  wrote the first programming language and a shit ton of programming languages.  What did you expect ?? Also why the fuck does the sexual orientation matter ??? Like I don't get it, why does it matter to you if I fuck a guy or a girl or even a fucking fleshlight ? 

[PlayStation 2]

2 minutes ago, cesrai said:

It only makes sense, that until now that most of developers are ,,white straight males'' because well after all they fucking  wrote the first programming language and a shit ton of programming languages.  What did you expect ?? Also why the fuck does the sexual orientation matter ??? Like I don't get it, why does it matter to you if I fuck a guy or a girl or even a fucking fleshlight ? 

It's all in the name of "diversity", or something like that. These people go from one thing to another so quick I can't even keep track.

[Coaxialgamer]

Ok so i don't get it . On the COC website they have stuff like  this :

 

Isn't this work ethic 101 ? What's the big deal here ?  I'd expect this of any professional work environment .

 

I mean , i'm aware of the whole master/slave debacle recently , but the website itself is so vague . It doesn't explicitly state what the problem is or how it will be solved . And i see no mention of pushing/hindering any ethnic groups or people of various backgrounds/orientations. The closest concrete thing is see is "people should be held accountable for their own behaviour" . 

I thought the general rule of thumb is just "don't be a dick" and "treat people as you want to be treated" , and you're fine . what's the controversy , and what is exactly wrong with an existing code of conduct?

 

[Ithanul]

54 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

More specifically, it’s something that just happens to be mostly done by white straight males.

 

There was no actual barrier to coding for Linux if you’re not a white straight male. If that really bothers you so much, I think you have bigger problems.

 

Forcing is not the way to go. Stop trying it you dickwads.

Agree.  I'm like the one of two gals in the IT where I work.  Our male co-workers have no issue with us nor us with them.  Really wonder what these chaps are waving pitch forks for at times.  At most, they making it worst, not better with these policies they are pushing.

 

Heck, when working on my CS, there just not many females going for it nor interested in it.  Most either go into medical degrees, finance degrees, social worker or teachers (at the university I was at).  Think there was at max three gals out of like 15-30 students depending on the classes.  Even less in the programming classes.

[D13H4RD]

2 minutes ago, Ithanul said:

Heck, when working on my CS, there just not many females going for it nor interested in it.  Most either go into medical degrees, finance degrees, social worker or teachers (at the university I was at).  Think there was at max three gals out of like 15-30 students depending on the classes.  Even less in the programming classes.

In my intake, there was literally one female taking up CS. 

 

3 minutes ago, Ithanul said:

Our male co-workers have no issue with us nor us with them.  Really wonder what these chaps are waving pitch forks for at times.  At most, they making it worst, not better with these policies they are pushing.

And that's the thing. What's stopping you from contributing? If you've got the skills, then just jump in and do it. 

 

If your reason for holding out is because of some fallacy that doesn't even exist, you need to work on that first