@movq@www.uninformativ.de

Firstly, contributing software to an open source project cannot be a blanket “get out of jail free” card. That’s a sociopathic stance, on its face, and just cannot be accepted.

I don’t understand. Why is that sociopathic? (Language barrier here? I really don’t get what you mean.)

Imagine an open source software project that is designed, from day 1, to produce software to drive a planet-destroying weapon. The fact that it is an open source project does not allow the software developers involved to freely make the software for the planet-destroying weapon without any responsibility for the consequences of using the weapon. They are directly involved in an activity that will destroy the planet, and they should be treated as such.

That is extreme, obviously, but the point is that there is a line somewhere. A hobby project is obviously not dangerous to anyone. A planet-destroying weapon is. It is sociopathic–literally, deadly to society–to pretend otherwise. I all other sphere of life, we are careful to distinguish which behaviors are dangerous from which behaviors are not. Why should open source software development be any different?

It should not be different. Some open source software development is dangerous, and should be treated appropriately.

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Fair point (although extreme example to show it 😆)

Key point here: a line has to be drawn.

Right now the EU proposed laws don’t distinguish between dangerous software and non-dangerous nor free lowly lone non-paid developer vs. commercial company that profits from open source and has no liability despite making millions or billions.

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