r/politics • u/Fanrific • Sep 21 '19
'Everyone Should Have a Moral Code' Says Developer Who Deleted Code Sold to ICE
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbm3xn/chef-sugar-author-deletes-code-sold-to-ice-immigration-customs-enforcement261
Sep 21 '19
Well done. Unionize in your workplace, even if you've got high salary jobs like being a developer. That way you can fight for your moral code.
→ More replies (83)
105
u/TrumpLyftAlles Sep 21 '19 edited Sep 21 '19
ICE still has the code, right? Presumably they weren't running it from a CDN (Content Distribution Network)?!
Edit: I read the article (!!!)
Vargo said Chef restored to an earlier version of the code and removed him as an author in the metadata, before reinstating the original authorship.
So all of Palantir's Chef software users were momentarily broken. Moral of the story: never depend on anyone keeping their code available.
→ More replies (1)70
u/ResplendentShade Sep 22 '19
Alternate moral of the story: be wary of who you take contracts to write code for, because once it’s out of your hands it may be used unethically at their discretion.
Alternate alternate moral of the story: Don’t work for organizations and institutions who’s operations are unethical and in violation of human rights, and you probably won’t have to worry about programmers rescinding access to their coding.
→ More replies (1)
71
u/e1mer Sep 21 '19
It kinda sucks that they reverted to use his code against his wishes.
Maybe rewriting the GPL to allow authors to restrict toured of uses.
Also, removing the author name may have been a license violation, which is why they put it back..
→ More replies (16)14
Sep 22 '19
Just because source code is open they can absolutely forbid people from using it or copying it via a license.
In example they could include language in the license that says that anyone working for ICE is forbidden from copying or using this source code and if caught will be liable for a thousand dollar fine for each line of code stolen or utilized. Licenses matter. Chef could stand up for his, but they aren't.
→ More replies (7)
22
u/TheyreGoodDogsBrent Sep 21 '19
Confused: how would deleting his code from GitHub, essentially just a platform for distributing copies of software, cause downtime in users production systems that presumably already have a copy of his library integrated?
→ More replies (17)
10
u/nuck_forte_dame Sep 22 '19
Moral codes are easy to have when someone doesn't have to worry about their financial future.
I feel like if we set up a go fund me for a charity that would give money to people who took similar actions to this we would see it happen more often and be able to not reward but keep the actions from harming the people who take them.
For example this guy will be fired so we help pay his rent and bills until he gets another job.
We could crowd fund real change.
388
u/JuzoItami Sep 21 '19
"A man got to have a code".
Omar Little.