Several Linux Kernel Driver Maintainers Removed Due To Their Association To Russia

[moonwalker]

If there is actual evidence that a certain kernel maintainer has been doing something fishy then kick him out, no problem.
However, I'm not a fan of people being kicked out just based on nationality.

As a Ukrainian myself, I still have to agree with that. Unless there is either evidence those devs did something shady, or specific legal requirements, this is BS.

That said, the not-so-recent XZ utils FUBAR may explain the paranoia.

[rmfx]

Ridiculous.
And developers from African countries ran by bloody dictators, let's remove them too then...
The developers from countries where Islamic terrorist organizations rule, remove them too.
Oh, and if being a citizen of a Country that started a war is a valid reason, then, let's ban all American developers, because USA has started more wars in the past century than any.
What's the next step?

[Espionage724]

If there is actual evidence that a certain kernel maintainer has been doing something fishy then kick him out, no problem.
However, I'm not a fan of people being kicked out just based on nationality.

Eh, if it was some small-time hobby project, sure. Linux isn't some hobby small-time project and is used widespread on network infrastructure; a lot of which controlling or having access to critically-important systems. Nothing is safe with war-time presets, including open-source projects, contributions to them, as-widespread as SSL, or just-as-chainable something silly like a minor image editor plugin exploit if the opportunity presents itself. Russia is pretty good at cyber-warfare.

In "the times", I find this reasonable. Unfortunate for innocents caught-up in it, but the larger-picture of national security is more important. And maintenance burden would make sense of this with distancing from potential issues, vs scrutinizing them harder with limited man-power.

Realistically, I'm not sure this would affect me at all and assume it won't.

[Sonadow]

If GKH has the fucking balls, remove all these Russian maintainers' code along with their names from the mailing list and see just how much functionality is lost fro m the kernel in doing so.

This is code stealing. Full stop. Take the maintainers code, keep it in the kernel, but kick the maintainers out.

Fucking asshole.

[oiaohm]

As a Ukrainian myself, I still have to agree with that. Unless there is either evidence those devs did something shady, or specific legal requirements, this is BS.

There is legal requirement. Problem is the following.

https://ofac.treasury.gov/faqs/1185

Plus

https://www.theregister.com/2017/05/13/gnu_gpl_enforceable_contract/

Yes by USA law GPL is a contract and a license.

So great fun Linux kernel Maintainers falls under USA "EXECUTIVE ORDER 14071" restricting interactions with Russia.

USA "EXECUTIVE ORDER 14071" from April 6, 2022 with it only starting to activate September 12, 2024 and then there is 90 days to come into total compliance from September 12.

Yes this order is if you are Russia you are effected.

Maintaining software falls under "information technology (IT) consultancy and design services"

This has nothing todo with the XZ utils foobar. The reality is the USA Sanction system is normally a very slow moving beast. So response to the XZ utils foobar normally will not be for another 3-4 years. Order of events normally follow this timeline.

1) some country does something the USA classes as bad.
2) USA takes a about year to work out what Sanction they are going to apply on a country.
3) USA then takes another 2 to 3 years to apply that Sanction after they have been approved so to give their companies time to avoid sanctions in theory.(of course they don't advertise the sanction for this 2 to 3 years.)
4) after they apply the sanction the first 90 days be sending companies and organizations in breach warning notices and do nothing if those parties correct action in the 90 days.(this is where we are with executive order 14071)
5) finally then start doing count actions and punishments for not following the sanction

So the response to 2024 XZ utils event for the USA we mostly likely will not see until 2027/2028. Yes the USA Sanction system gives countries tons of room to-do something really bad then say sorry then have nothing happen to them.

[Etherman]

Well, I guess we need to call him "CIA-Asset Linus Torvalds" now.
Making such a decision and then "communicating", if you even can call this "communicating", in such quiet, almost shady way....seems like he made the deal.

And if you think, the CIA wouldn't make a guy like him all sorts of deals over the years, you must still believe in Santa. Now that there is even publicly a discussion on who is gonna replace him, because he is getting old, he pobably said to himself: "Fuck it, get me that sweet deal."

You know CIA is a good thing, just as Mossad and SBU are good things too.

[Espionage724]

You know CIA is a good thing, just as Mossad and SBU are good things too.

CIA is only bad to the bad guys

[skeevy420]

If GKH has the fucking balls, remove all these Russian maintainers' code along with their names from the mailing list and see just how much functionality is lost fro m the kernel in doing so.

This is code stealing. Full stop. Take the maintainers code, keep it in the kernel, but kick the maintainers out.

Fucking asshole.

At the end of the day, IBM might as well own Linux. They're the ones paying Linus the big bucks. IBM and RHEL are American. America has sanctions against Russia. Therefore, Russian developers can't work on American or America-used products and services which includes the Linux kernel.

I expect to see more Russian developers kicked out of more FOSS projects for the same reason.

Also, this isn't code stealing. This is literally the GPL in action. The code is still theirs, they just can't contribute to that project anymore. Their names weren't removed from the commit history, their names were removed from the maintainers list and any new code is now being rejected. They were FOSS Fired.

If you feel bad for the Russian developers you should feel really fucking bad for the Cuban and North Korean developers.

FWIW, I don't like this, I just understand that this is one of the dark consequences of war and countries having geopolitical enemies.

Ironically, in a few months we could be having this same discussion about Kent being FOSS Fired over being difficult to work with. Would it be Kent's fault for being difficult to work with or would Kent be dumb for licensing his code as FOSS/GPL and then getting kicked off the GPL project for being difficult?

[skeevy420]

CIA is only bad to the bad guys

Your username checks out.

[mobadboy]

I put my thinking cap on 🧢🧢

critical thinking skills for a second

do you think linux > US govt?
when linus lives in USA?

i think not

US govt sanction most of russia
issue blanket bans. unfair, some are.

but unfair not matter. US govt have long arm.

idk about you but

i not want to go against US govt. especially since it not make any different in the scheme of things.