Russian developers blocked from contributing to FOSS tools
(2023/03/21)
- Reference: 1679409189
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/21/russian_foss_contributions_blocked/
- Source link:
Opinion Code is being refused if it comes from developers in sanctioned Russian companies… but it's not clear if this is an effective move. Cui bono?
The Reg has seen two recent incidents of Russian developers being blocked from public development of FOSS code. One was a refusal on the Linux kernel mailing list, the other a more general block on Github. In the last week, these events have both caused active, and sometimes heated, discussions in FOSS developer communities.
The GitHub account of developer [1]Alexander Amelkin has been blocked, and his repositories marked as "archived" – including [2]ipmitool , whose README describes it as "a utility for managing and configuring devices that support the Intelligent Platform Management Interface." Unable to comment on Github itself, Amelkin [3]described what happened on the project's older Soureforge page:
Sorry to say, but on March 1st without any prior notice or any explanation whatsoever, GitHub has suspended my personal account and made orphan all the projects that I owned/maintained.
That includes ipmitool and frugen .
This mailing list and the old sourceforge project page are the only means of communication with you that I have left. I am currently searching for a way to unblock my GitHub or (less preferably) migrate ipmitool once again to another less hostile service.
Amelkin works for Russian chipbuilder Yadro, which [4]we described as working on RISC-V chips back in 2021. Microsoft is just obeying US law in this: according to the War and Sanctions database of the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the [5]NACP , Yadro is a [6]sanctioned company.
However, on LinkedIn, Amelkin [7]disputes his employer's involvement:
You may rest assured that this "sanctioned corporation" takes no part in this awful war, and even if making civilian server products can be viewed as somehow taking part, that part is definitely far less than what, say, BMW or Bosch took in WW2, yet nobody seems to have cancelled them or at least remembered what they've done, let alone their individual employees. All this is stupid, xenophobic and racist. Especially you labelling me as a terrorist on the basis of my ethnicity.
Over on Hacker News, commentators [8]seem to be generally in favor of the move, although the [9]discussion on LWN is more measured, pointing out both that there is little threat from server-management tools like this, but that Microsoft probably has no choice.
Amelkin is not alone. Over on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, a contribution from Sergey Semin has been [10]refused with the terse notice:
We don't feel comfortable accepting patches from or relating to hardware produced by your organization.
Please withhold networking contributions until further notice.
Semin is a developer at chipmaker Baikal Electronics, a company whose website has been suspended for a year now, as [11]we noted a year ago in a story that also mentions Yadro. We were [12]reporting on Baikal's efforts to develop its own CPUs nearly a decade ago, mere months after the [13]Russian annexation of Crimea . And once again, there is spirited [14]debate over the move on the Orange Site.
Last summer, the Reg FOSS desk speculated whether [15]renewed Russian investment in Linux as a result of Western sanctions might result in improvements and patches flowing back upstream. It looks like the answer here is an increasingly firm no , but not because Russian developers aren't offering them. They are — but their efforts are being rebuffed.
[16]
This seems backward to us: the aim of sanctions is to impose additiuonal costs on the bad activities of hostile nations, or to cause them to reconsider their bad behavior. The aim is to make these countries better behaved and more cooperative with others. Code sharing is good behavior: it takes effort to share your code, and it benefits everyone with whom it is shared. Refusing code contributions because they are from aggressive actors does not hurt or hinder any Russian organization. It doesn't matter what uses the companies offering it have for the code they are sharing. It's irrelevant if the uses are military or peaceful civilian ones.
[17]
[18]
Marking a Git repository read-only doesn't stop anyone getting or using the code. The whole point of Git is that it's decentralized. An archived Github repository can still be cloned or forked, and developers can keep working on their local repositories, and sharing them with each other inside the country… or, of course, simply duplicate the code on a Russian-hosted site. If those didn't already exist, they very soon will, just like [19]Chinese Git host Gitee .
[20]UNIX co-creator Ken Thompson is a… what user now?
[21]Reg FOSS desk test drive: First beta of Fedora 38 drops
[22]AmigaOS 3.2.2 released for those feeling nostalgic
[23]Pop open a cask: Homebrew version 4.0.0 is here
These actions don't inconvenience Russia in any way. The measures don't prevent Russian companies from working on the code, or using it however they wish. It doesn't even make it more difficult for them. It merely means that the rest of the world can't benefit from it.
Political choices aside, we suspect that simple human nature may well mean that anyone thus rebuffed will probably stop trying to share their efforts. Sanctions preventing use of proprietary software are a good idea. However, we already know that the result is a substantial expansion of FOSS use and adoption inside Russia and China. (It's already [24]used inside North Korea ). Sanctions against FOSS development are a terrible idea: they just mean that any improvements that work will benefit only the countries being sanctioned, and hurt those enforcing sanctions. ®
Bootnote
Our thanks to Reg reader Ville for drawing our attention to this LKML post.
Get our [25]Tech Resources
[1] https://github.com/AlexanderAmelkin
[2] https://github.com/ipmitool/ipmitool
[3] https://sourceforge.net/p/ipmitool/mailman/message/37787037/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/15/yadro_riscv/
[5] https://nazk.gov.ua/en/
[6] https://sanctions.nazk.gov.ua/en/sanction-company/6813/
[7] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7041900884989022208/
[8] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35137213
[9] https://lwn.net/Articles/926101/
[10] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230314103316.313e5f61@kernel.org/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/11/russian_chip_makers/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/23/russian_media_says_gov_to_dump_x86_bake_own_64bit_arm/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2014/04/22/google_maps_russia_crimea/
[14] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35182705
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/09/russian_debianderivative_vendor_plans_ipo/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZBnisFF-R0yxViKbCfFEpgAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZBnisFF-R0yxViKbCfFEpgAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZBnisFF-R0yxViKbCfFEpgAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/10/gitee_linux_foundation_china_mirror/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/17/ken_thompson_is_a_maccie/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/17/first_beta_of_fedora_38/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/amiga_os_322/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/27/homebrew_version_4_is_here/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2015/12/29/north_korea_red_star_os/
[25] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The Reg has seen two recent incidents of Russian developers being blocked from public development of FOSS code. One was a refusal on the Linux kernel mailing list, the other a more general block on Github. In the last week, these events have both caused active, and sometimes heated, discussions in FOSS developer communities.
The GitHub account of developer [1]Alexander Amelkin has been blocked, and his repositories marked as "archived" – including [2]ipmitool , whose README describes it as "a utility for managing and configuring devices that support the Intelligent Platform Management Interface." Unable to comment on Github itself, Amelkin [3]described what happened on the project's older Soureforge page:
Sorry to say, but on March 1st without any prior notice or any explanation whatsoever, GitHub has suspended my personal account and made orphan all the projects that I owned/maintained.
That includes ipmitool and frugen .
This mailing list and the old sourceforge project page are the only means of communication with you that I have left. I am currently searching for a way to unblock my GitHub or (less preferably) migrate ipmitool once again to another less hostile service.
Amelkin works for Russian chipbuilder Yadro, which [4]we described as working on RISC-V chips back in 2021. Microsoft is just obeying US law in this: according to the War and Sanctions database of the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the [5]NACP , Yadro is a [6]sanctioned company.
However, on LinkedIn, Amelkin [7]disputes his employer's involvement:
You may rest assured that this "sanctioned corporation" takes no part in this awful war, and even if making civilian server products can be viewed as somehow taking part, that part is definitely far less than what, say, BMW or Bosch took in WW2, yet nobody seems to have cancelled them or at least remembered what they've done, let alone their individual employees. All this is stupid, xenophobic and racist. Especially you labelling me as a terrorist on the basis of my ethnicity.
Over on Hacker News, commentators [8]seem to be generally in favor of the move, although the [9]discussion on LWN is more measured, pointing out both that there is little threat from server-management tools like this, but that Microsoft probably has no choice.
Amelkin is not alone. Over on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, a contribution from Sergey Semin has been [10]refused with the terse notice:
We don't feel comfortable accepting patches from or relating to hardware produced by your organization.
Please withhold networking contributions until further notice.
Semin is a developer at chipmaker Baikal Electronics, a company whose website has been suspended for a year now, as [11]we noted a year ago in a story that also mentions Yadro. We were [12]reporting on Baikal's efforts to develop its own CPUs nearly a decade ago, mere months after the [13]Russian annexation of Crimea . And once again, there is spirited [14]debate over the move on the Orange Site.
Last summer, the Reg FOSS desk speculated whether [15]renewed Russian investment in Linux as a result of Western sanctions might result in improvements and patches flowing back upstream. It looks like the answer here is an increasingly firm no , but not because Russian developers aren't offering them. They are — but their efforts are being rebuffed.
[16]
This seems backward to us: the aim of sanctions is to impose additiuonal costs on the bad activities of hostile nations, or to cause them to reconsider their bad behavior. The aim is to make these countries better behaved and more cooperative with others. Code sharing is good behavior: it takes effort to share your code, and it benefits everyone with whom it is shared. Refusing code contributions because they are from aggressive actors does not hurt or hinder any Russian organization. It doesn't matter what uses the companies offering it have for the code they are sharing. It's irrelevant if the uses are military or peaceful civilian ones.
[17]
[18]
Marking a Git repository read-only doesn't stop anyone getting or using the code. The whole point of Git is that it's decentralized. An archived Github repository can still be cloned or forked, and developers can keep working on their local repositories, and sharing them with each other inside the country… or, of course, simply duplicate the code on a Russian-hosted site. If those didn't already exist, they very soon will, just like [19]Chinese Git host Gitee .
[20]UNIX co-creator Ken Thompson is a… what user now?
[21]Reg FOSS desk test drive: First beta of Fedora 38 drops
[22]AmigaOS 3.2.2 released for those feeling nostalgic
[23]Pop open a cask: Homebrew version 4.0.0 is here
These actions don't inconvenience Russia in any way. The measures don't prevent Russian companies from working on the code, or using it however they wish. It doesn't even make it more difficult for them. It merely means that the rest of the world can't benefit from it.
Political choices aside, we suspect that simple human nature may well mean that anyone thus rebuffed will probably stop trying to share their efforts. Sanctions preventing use of proprietary software are a good idea. However, we already know that the result is a substantial expansion of FOSS use and adoption inside Russia and China. (It's already [24]used inside North Korea ). Sanctions against FOSS development are a terrible idea: they just mean that any improvements that work will benefit only the countries being sanctioned, and hurt those enforcing sanctions. ®
Bootnote
Our thanks to Reg reader Ville for drawing our attention to this LKML post.
Get our [25]Tech Resources
[1] https://github.com/AlexanderAmelkin
[2] https://github.com/ipmitool/ipmitool
[3] https://sourceforge.net/p/ipmitool/mailman/message/37787037/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/15/yadro_riscv/
[5] https://nazk.gov.ua/en/
[6] https://sanctions.nazk.gov.ua/en/sanction-company/6813/
[7] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7041900884989022208/
[8] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35137213
[9] https://lwn.net/Articles/926101/
[10] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230314103316.313e5f61@kernel.org/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/11/russian_chip_makers/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/23/russian_media_says_gov_to_dump_x86_bake_own_64bit_arm/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2014/04/22/google_maps_russia_crimea/
[14] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35182705
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/09/russian_debianderivative_vendor_plans_ipo/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZBnisFF-R0yxViKbCfFEpgAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZBnisFF-R0yxViKbCfFEpgAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZBnisFF-R0yxViKbCfFEpgAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/10/gitee_linux_foundation_china_mirror/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/17/ken_thompson_is_a_maccie/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/17/first_beta_of_fedora_38/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/amiga_os_322/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/27/homebrew_version_4_is_here/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2015/12/29/north_korea_red_star_os/
[25] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
beardman
Yes, the citizens of Russia must start thinking what's wrong with their country and begin fixing it. They should not continue as if everything is normal.
Путин - хуйло!
@beardman - Let the Russian people decide
Anonymous Coward
instead of pressuring them. They know what they're doing, they've already been through two major revolutions.
"let alone their individual employees"
JoeCool
His analysis is completely on the nose.
FOSS neutrality?
bofh1961
The very nature of FOSS makes it universal, anyone can pick it up and use it, without charge, for whatever they want. Corporations monetise it but secretly wish they could own it. Governments make free use of it but secretly wish they controlled it. FOSS occupies a strange space that neither maths nor physics can describe, a space which bypasses geographical boundaries and economic models. It can be used for almost any purpose that involves information. Profit can be made from it but it can't be owned. It can be used but it can't be controlled. The growth and development of AI will only make this more so.
Paul Crawford
I can see the point of the sanctions to a degree, a bit like excluding Russian athletes from international games as a means of reminding the nation of the consequences of its leader's actions. But I don't see that sanctioning individual FOSS contributors is that helpful and there is a danger of xenophobic attacks on Russian individuals irrespective of their support or opposition to Putin.
Possibly a better and more IT retaliation would be to route all access via one IP filter so international news access for Russian citizens is automatically part of gaining access to the rest of the world!
Where were the blockers during the USA's illegal war against Iraq?
VoiceOfTruth
Hypocrites.
ChoHag
This Jakub says "we" but I only see one name in the From header.
Ridiculous
Rainer
Does everything has to be politicized these days?
Additionally, it's a slippery slope. What's next? Internment camps, because you don't trust 'em to not do any sabotage-acts?
Remember, folks: this war cannot go on forever. At some point, you will have to make peace again. Politicians make war, but only the people can make peace.
Re: Ridiculous
moonhaus
"Does everything has to be politicized these days"
A war is inherently political. Better to try and stop it with sanctions than even more bombs.
"can be viewed as somehow taking part, that part is definitely far less than what, say, BMW or Bosch took in WW2, yet nobody seems to have cancelled them or at least remembered what they've done, let alone their individual employees. "
That's some top grade whataboutism right there. Germany paid substantial reparations and saw large parts of their industry destroyed or taken during and after WW2. There is also no-one working at Bosch, BMW or any other German company today who was even alive during WW2, so pointing at those firms is just stupidtiy of the highest order.
One of the major points of sanctions is to make the citizens of the targeted country, not suffer ,but to not be able to carry on as if nothing is happening. Which is exactly what most Russians were trying to do before Putin's mass mobilisation effort (when hundreds of thousands fled Russia to avoid being called up, because they could no longer avoid the reality of war). Before that the vast majority of Russians pretended like nothing was happening or if it was, it was nothing to do with them. Refusing their code contributions is just another way to say, sorry but you cant pretend everything is normal.
People are dying due to one nations illegal invasion. Sometimes you have to take a stand, and if the only way Github and the Linux Kernel mailing list can do that is to say, sorry but we wont accept Russian contributions anymore, then why shouldnt they do it?