From ethical concerns, a desire for more money, and simple obnoxiousness, a handful of developers are ruining open-source for everyone. . One of the most amazing things about open-source isn't that it produces great software. It's that so many developers put their egos aside to create great programs with the help of others. Now, however, a handful of programmers are putting their own concerns ahead of the good of the many and potentially wrecking open-source software for everyone. For example, JavaScript's package manager maintainer RIAEvangelist, Brandon Nozaki Miller, wrote and published an open-code npm source-code package called peacenotwar. It did little but print a message for peace to desktops. So far, so harmless. . Collective efforts fuel open-source innovation, yet certain programmers place their pride above the collective, endangering the quality of the projects.. Open Source Culture, Developer Ethics, Software Impacts. . Brittany Day
As the long arm of the law reaches Napster and its lookalikes, programmers could be held responsible for what others do with their code. ... Shawn C. Reimerdes awoke on July 26, confident that his own fate had nothing to do . . . . As the long arm of the law reaches Napster and its lookalikes, programmers could be held responsible for what others do with their code. ... Shawn C. Reimerdes awoke on July 26, confident that his own fate had nothing to do with Napster's. He had just released Yo!NK, a file-sharing program that could be used to trade copyrighted MP3s, but since the Yo!NK network consists of various servers whose owners voluntarily host the program, Reimerdes figured he was safe. The link for this article located at Salon is no longer available. . With lawsuits aimed at Napster and comparable services, programmers could face consequences for how their software is utilized.. File Sharing, Developer Ethics, Code Responsibility. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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