FFmpeg to Google: Fund us or stop sending bugs

I’m an open source maintainer, so I empathize with the sentiment that large companies appear to produce labor for unpaid maintainers by disclosing security issues. But appearance is operative: a security issue is something that I (as the maintainer) would need to fix regardless of who reports it, or would otherwise need to accept the reputational hit that comes with not triaging security reports. That’s sometimes perfectly fine (it’s okay for projects to decide that security isn’t a priority!), but you can’t have it both ways.

I feel this comment is far to shallow a take. I would expect that you know better than most of HN, exactly how much a reputation security has as a cost center. Google uses ffmpeg internally, how many millions would they have to spend if they were required to not only create, but maintain ffmpeg themselves? How significant would that cost be at Google's scale?

I dont agree the following framing is accurate, but I can mention it because you've already said the important part (about how this issue exists, and mearly knowing about it doesn't create required work.) But here announcing it, and registering a CVE, Google is starting the clock. By some metrics, it was already running, but the reputational risk clearly was not. This does change priorities, and requires as urgent context switch. neither are free actions, especially not within FOSS.

To me, being someone who believes everyone, individuals and groups, have a responsibility to contribute fairly. I would frame it as Google's behavior gives the appearance weaponizing their cost center externally, given this is something Google could easily fix, but instead they shirked that responsibility to unfunded volunteers.

To be clear, I think Google (Apple, Microsoft, etc.) can and should fund more of the OSS they depend on. But this doesn’t change the fact that vulnerability reports don’t create work per se, they just reveal work that the project can choose to act on or not.