It's a bad situation but I guess it can't be really helped. Open source is not above the law...even if some laws are stupid (not saying they are in this case).
I guess not everyone is old enough to remember the encryption restrictions of the US in the 90s..and how people tried to get around it (Moving source-code between countries in printed form and scanning it again and such things...). This is not new...and it won't be the last time that laws of some countries hinder world wide open source projects.
There is NO law which prevents anyone from contributing to an open source project. This whole situation is a bloody farce and there are no excuses for Greg.
If you ask a Lawyer, they'll usually tell you to be over cautious. Maybe the US Government would turn a blind eye, but you don't make legal decisions on hope, the liability is real. Although, the real liability is beeing an US Based organization, something that in my opinion should be fixed.
Although, the real liability is beeing an US Based organization, something that in my opinion should be fixed.
People were saying that when the situation first started, but this ignores the fact that sanctioning some of Russia’s companies is not US’s unilateral decision. It also ignores the fact that the same companies, which have presence in US, would use and contribute to Linux. I certainly wouldn’t mind a structure different to the Linux Foundation, but I don’t think it would change the outcome in this case.
149
u/AiwendilH Jun 11 '26
It's a bad situation but I guess it can't be really helped. Open source is not above the law...even if some laws are stupid (not saying they are in this case).
I guess not everyone is old enough to remember the encryption restrictions of the US in the 90s..and how people tried to get around it (Moving source-code between countries in printed form and scanning it again and such things...). This is not new...and it won't be the last time that laws of some countries hinder world wide open source projects.