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Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 07-May-2026 20:39:09 JST Rich Felker
@cas @womble @eigen @mhoye I am not singling out Lennart here. I've written on many occasions about how corporations hiring FOSS developers or maintainers to gain (explicit or implicit) editorial control is a bad thing we should reject, and how funding should always be structured very explicitly to have no strings.

In conversation about 3 months ago from hachyderm.io permalink
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  Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 07-May-2026 20:59:45 JST Rich Felker
  in reply to
  @Foxboron @cas @womble @eigen @mhoye I'm talking about the condition where the reason they're hired is that they maintain or contribute to some software which is important to the employer, and they're hired with work on that a a primary role.
  
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  Morten Linderud (foxboron@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 07-May-2026 20:59:47 JST Morten Linderud
  in reply to
  @dalias @cas @womble @eigen @mhoye
  And if the employment contract stipulates they can work a percentage of their hours on FOSS, and the company has no say nor control in the development of the software?
  
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  Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 07-May-2026 21:05:21 JST Rich Felker
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  @Foxboron @cas @womble @eigen @mhoye I'm not proposing an objective test you can apply to see if a situation is ok or not. I'm stating principles.
  
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  Morten Linderud (foxboron@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 07-May-2026 21:05:22 JST Morten Linderud
  in reply to
  @dalias @cas @womble @eigen @mhoye
  And how do you discern the difference?
  
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  Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 07-May-2026 21:09:55 JST Rich Felker
  in reply to
  @Foxboron @cas @womble @eigen @mhoye I think it's unrealistic and disingenuos to claim that hiring the maintainer of a core piece of high profile Linux infrastructure is unrelated to his role as maintainer.
  Sure, if the employer's line of business were completely unrelated to that piece of software, it could in theory happen. But that's not the case here.
  
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  Morten Linderud (foxboron@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 07-May-2026 21:09:57 JST Morten Linderud
  in reply to
  @dalias @cas @womble @eigen @mhoye
  Yes, but you are making *pointed* claims about other FOSS contributors and projects.
  
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  Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 07-May-2026 23:09:58 JST Rich Felker
  in reply to
  @Foxboron @cas @womble @eigen @mhoye I am not assuming, I'm talking about power dynamics. Even if they don't actually "give the employer editorial control", every decision they make is colored by the appearance that they might have, and even if the employer does not explicitly demand anything, there is always the understanding that one's choices will have consequences for the employer and will be understood in that light.
  
  In conversation about 3 months ago permalink
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  Morten Linderud (foxboron@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 07-May-2026 23:10:00 JST Morten Linderud
  in reply to
  @dalias @cas @womble @eigen @mhoye
  I think it's bad faith to assume the maintainer would give the employer *they happen* to work for editorial control.
  
  In conversation about 3 months ago permalink

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