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Phoronix: Several Linux Kernel Driver Maintainers Removed Due To Their Association To Russia
(www.phoronix.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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The US is the most belligerent nation on earth, shall we ban american contributors? How about israeli?
Should their code be removed from the kernel?
The real question i haven't seen answered is Who owns the kernel code. Torvalds owns the Linux™ but that's to prevent others from buying it, but i was under the impression the source code is owned by all those who contribute to it and not whoever happens to be employing Torvalds at the time. Or is it a matter of where https://git.kernel.org/ happens to be hosted?
I'd suggest Codeberg but that's in Germany, so maybe another forgejo instance hosted maybe in Switzerland.
Who owns the copyright is irrelevant. Russian developers are still entirely entitled to use and modify the Linux source. The only thing they can't do is submit their changes for inclusion in the main Linux development tree. The only real consequence for them is that their changes might be broken by future kernel updates and they will have to fix it themselves to use newer kernels. That, and they will have to maintain their own distribution system. I've also seen nothing to suggest anyone's code is being removed.
The US didn't invade Ukraine and, obviously, isn't under US or European sanctions. I'm sure that you and I could agree on a great deal when it comes to American foreign policy, it's just not relevant to this situation where Russia is the clear aggressor. (Setting aside the usual "buffer zone" bullshit that every aggressor state uses and Putin already abandoned).
It is, which is why i focused on where the repository is located and whether that determines possession.
Possession is irrelevant too. Access to source code has not being restricted, and doing so wouldn't even be realistically possible. The only practical change is that new updates from these developers will not be published by the Linux Foundation, and ongoing integration will not be done by mainline Linux developers.
If Russia wants, they can fork Linux at any time, call it Rusinux, and do whatever they want with it. They could even port future Linux updates back to their kernel. They still have to keep it under the GPL2 license, but only if they want to honor Western copyright laws and treaties.