Am 15.08.22 um 17:47 schrieb doug demaio:
Hi all,
I am writing this email to the project to bring your attention to a troubling situation that has implications for the free open-source software community. Three related events took place last week that I believe threaten the open-source movement, restrict the freedom of expression of developers through code, and put us in a position to consider alternative solutions to approaching authoritarian constructs.
Firstly, last week, the United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned open source software Tornado Cash. Make no mistake, this was a sanctioning of a technology. Writing code is a freedom and we as an open-source community value the freedoms to use, share, study, modify and share code. I don’t believe any of us want this freedoms to be taken away. Freedom is an elementary human right and something that must be defended again and again. But claiming freedom also means taking responsibility. Freedom ends where others are violated, threatened or restricted in their freedom. This is also true for writing software. In Bernstein vs. US, courts long ago that code is speech and is protected by the First Amendment. I realize we are a global community and US laws don’t apply to everyone, but it can influence and actions do extend beyond boarders, which led to the second and third events.
GitHub removed the account of the code and removed its developers. [1] These developers were de-platformed from GitHub based on OFAC's whim. This brings up an important question. Should our community begin to think about alternatives to these source code hosting services like GitHub and GitLab? They are both companies and they do conform authoritarian constructs regardless of legal precedent. In this case, it proved to be not a private company decision based on media reporting, but a decision based on the repercussion from OFAC, which is very powerful if you know anything about financial authorities. I believe it is worth discussing the possibility of finding a decentralized solution. This event could provide that push we need to adjust the way we move the project forward. I understand we can host code ourselves, but believe joining an established decentralized solution would lower the attack vector of a single solution and allow for us to join a larger community that shares the same principles and values toward the freedoms of open-source software.
The third event was that Dutch authorities arrested the developer Alexey Pertsev. There is little information about his arrest, but it appears to be done to intimidate developers from expressing their freedom to develop free software. Maybe more will come out, but this situation instantly brought back memories of Aaron Swartz.[2] My hope is that it does not end up like the way it did with him. I think you cannot compare those two cases one-by-one. Swartz was fighting for the freedom of information, and that is an essential part of freedom at all.I might be mistaken, but for Tornado Cash I cannot see much beneficial uses for the overall society, and it is probably mainly used to hide criminal activities. I don't argue that it is ok what happened, but I want to differentiate: Just like for the freedom of speech: it is also important **what** you say and what you intend. It is not a general right you may claim for anything, including hurting others. Respect and responsibility must must go hand in hand with the exercise of civil liberties. The FSFE, FSF and Open-Source Initiative are organizations we have established that would help us in a similar situation. I hope that stand up and defend this developer given the situation aligns clearly with these organizations' purpose. Do you think there is a collective document we should create or something else that can be done for us to collectively voice our views on this overreach? Maybe even creating some sort of Developer Freedom pin that helps us establish a movement when things like this happen. It seems to be a repetitive thing, and maybe we should prepare for this. I ask that each of you voice your concern about the above situation to these helpful organizations if you would like to help.
Questions Rephrased: 1. Should we begin to think about alternatives to source code hosting services like GitHub and GitLab? Yes, this can and should be considered. But not only for the reason of that case of Alexey Pertsev. Freedom is always at risk when it is in the hands of large corporations. 2. Do you think there is a collective document we need or something else we can do to voice the views on this subject? Would be a good idea. But this document should also talk about responsibility and the rules that everyone must observe to create a free society. In those days, freedom is often misinterpreted as "my right". It is at least as much "my responsibility". I hope people find this information useful, discuss it and express their opinions in a manner where we can find an actionable response to this overrearch. I believe it is in the interest of the openSUSE Project, and other projects and organizations to collectively stand up together and voice an opinion that we reject these efforts to censor open-source code.
[1] - https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/10/github_tornado_cookies/ [2] - https://youtu.be/vy9tSaZFlPI?t=43
v/r Doug Best regards Martin Winter - letsfindaway