Mastodawn

@fsf censored me for raising ethical questions surrounding the use of Free Software in Russian Military

The message i sent was:

> i am not saying condeming acts of war, FSF is not the place for that i am saying to encourage restricting access to russians or doing literally anything on the subject, but watching

Full conversation at https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2022-02/msg00055.html

#FSF #FreeSoftwarePolitics #FLOSS #FOSS #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #UA #Ukraine #UkraineCrisis #standwithUkraine #supportUkraine #UkraineCrisis #RU #Russia #putin #moscow

Should we take steps to reduce russian access to Free Software?

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rastinza Feb 26, 2022

@kreyren
Was it censored? The full message is there and a conversation started from it.

I disagree with you.
I'm all for finding a way to solve the situation in Ukraine, but I don't see this leading to any good.
While I am in favour of Ukraine, it's not certain that people that developed free software are.
Would it be right to limit the access to code to a Russian guy who wrote it?

Moreover if this is allowed, then the fsf would become a weapon, that's used by certain governments against their enemies.
There's no real reason the fsf should limit the access to the code for Russians rather than Ukrainians: it just depends on your opinion of the situation.
Right now there are several wars going on and you would have to decide which ones are right and which ones are wrong.

It may be possible to discuss whether to introduce something in the license which would prevent that code from being used for weapons or military stuff.

That said, I'm not part of the fsf, I'm just expressing my opinion on this.
@fsf

> Was it censored? The full message is there and a conversation started from it.

The message i sent was rejected to be published in the list

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I am not arguing for weaponizing FSF i am currently arguing for people to review their code and ask themselves whether it can be used in russian military.. If so they should take an appropriate actions like i am a software/hardware developer and i am working on an aircraft for 3.5 years now.. that aircraft is very cheap to make and can be easily turned into a drone..

Legal restrictions are not going to work russia doesn't even care about the international law..

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rastinza Feb 26, 2022

@kreyren
Oh, sorry I thought it was the one you linked to.

At this point the war is prepared already, probably won't last very long.
I'm unsure deleting your code would accomplish anything, I doubt Russia entered this war unprepared.
If it can be turned into a drone, and you don't have problems with it being used like that, then you might show how this can be done to some Ukrainian that would be able to.
@fsf