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Rug pulls, forks, and open-source feudalism

(lwn.net)
275 points pabs3 | 1 comments | 06 Sep 25 05:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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skybrian ◴[06 Sep 25 17:19 UTC] No.45151115[source]▶
For nearly all open source projects, we are free riders. We use them and don’t contribute anything back. Open source is not about fair exchange; it’s about gift-giving and copying other people’s homework.

If you choose to give gifts to the world, that’s great, but you should go into it with your eyes open and not expect anything back. The world includes a lot of terrible people and you’re giving them gifts too. It’s okay to change your mind.

Calling it a “rug pull” when a software vendor relicenses seems like biased language. We still have all the gifts they gave us. It’s unfortunate that they changed direction, but nothing lasts forever.

replies(3): >>45151371 #>>45155087 #>>45168740 #
1. account42 ◴[08 Sep 25 14:27 UTC] No.45168740[source]▶
I think it's fair to recognize that giving gifts, especially repeatedly over a long time, can create an obligation as people become dependent on those gifts and alternatives they might have relied on otherwise disappear or never materialize in the first place.

And that's before going into the effort of other people that goes into making an open source project successful but who don't have any legal ownership over the source code and thus no legal say in the future of it.