"The key is that Open Source is literally about exploiting unpaid labor."
I might not be a maintainer, but having worked with FOSS maintainers and corporate maintainers I can say this: Not all open source maintainers work on their own accord, some actually get paid through regional programs and others through companies that they work for either as contract open source dev or a maintainer for customized versions of an open source project (which they then merge relevant code back to frequently). It's the choice of the maintainer to work themselves to death, as you say the incentive is volunteerism- just because I donate my time to a homeless recovery program to setup linux laptops that they can build resumes on, doesn't mean I'm going to quit my job as a Systems Administrator to volunteer myself to death.
"Indeed, the very nature of Open Source means that of course Open Source code can and will be exploited to violate the rights of other."
Water is a human right, right? So let's say a town has one large well and a benevolent citizen decides to work the well every day and pass the water through a filtration system. Because water is free, maintained to a healthy standard, should evil people not be given water? Do you think someone who charges money for the water should decline the sale of fresh water to an evil person?
Should a closed source company decide that government's who disrespect human rights no longer have access to their code? What's there to stop those companies from pirating the code anyway?
The fact that open source code is more readily available doesn't mean an evil person/group/organization wouldn't eventually get their hands on the tools necessary to commit atrocities.
Aside from a couple of your points, I do agree that maintainers are not the forethought of the open source community, as they bloody well deserve to be and I appreciate the length of time you must have put into your article as it is incredibly well written and thought out. Thank you for your time Don Goodman-Wilson.
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"The key is that Open Source is literally about exploiting unpaid labor."
I might not be a maintainer, but having worked with FOSS maintainers and corporate maintainers I can say this: Not all open source maintainers work on their own accord, some actually get paid through regional programs and others through companies that they work for either as contract open source dev or a maintainer for customized versions of an open source project (which they then merge relevant code back to frequently). It's the choice of the maintainer to work themselves to death, as you say the incentive is volunteerism- just because I donate my time to a homeless recovery program to setup linux laptops that they can build resumes on, doesn't mean I'm going to quit my job as a Systems Administrator to volunteer myself to death.
"Indeed, the very nature of Open Source means that of course Open Source code can and will be exploited to violate the rights of other."
Water is a human right, right? So let's say a town has one large well and a benevolent citizen decides to work the well every day and pass the water through a filtration system. Because water is free, maintained to a healthy standard, should evil people not be given water? Do you think someone who charges money for the water should decline the sale of fresh water to an evil person?
Should a closed source company decide that government's who disrespect human rights no longer have access to their code? What's there to stop those companies from pirating the code anyway?
The fact that open source code is more readily available doesn't mean an evil person/group/organization wouldn't eventually get their hands on the tools necessary to commit atrocities.
Aside from a couple of your points, I do agree that maintainers are not the forethought of the open source community, as they bloody well deserve to be and I appreciate the length of time you must have put into your article as it is incredibly well written and thought out. Thank you for your time Don Goodman-Wilson.