On Linux MAINTAINERS file removal of Russian developers
I sincerely regret to see Linux kernel patches like this one removing Russian developers from the MAINTAINERS file. To me, it is a sign or maybe even a symbol of how far the Linux kernel developer community I remember from ~ 20 years ago has changed, and how much it has alienated itself from what I remember back in the day.
In my opinion this commit is wrong at so many different levels:
it is intransparent. Initially it gave no explanation whatsoever (other than some compliance hand-waving). There was some follow-up paraphrasing one paragraph of presumed legal advice that was given presumably by Linux Foundation to Linus. That's not a thorough legal analysis at all. It doesn't even say to whom it was given, and who (the individual developers? Linux Foundation? Distributors?) is presumed to be subject to the unspecified regulations in which specific jurisdiction
it discriminates developers based on their presumed [Russian] nationality based on their name, e-mail address domain name or employer.
A later post in the thread has clarified that it's about an U.S. embargo list against certain Russian individuals / companies. It is news to me that the MAINTAINERS file was usually containing Companies or that the Linux kernel development is Companies engaging with each other. I was under the naive assumption that it's individual developers who work together, and their employers do not really matter. Contributions are judged by their merit, and not by the author or their employer / affiliation. In the super unlikely case that indeed those individual developers removed from the MAINTAINERS file would be personally listed in the embargo list: Then yes, of course, I agree, they'd have to be removed. But then the commit log should of course point to [the version] of that list and explicitly mention that they were personally listed there.
And no, I am of course not a friend of the Russian government at all. They are committing war crimes, no doubt about it. But since when has the collaboration of individual developers in an open source project been something related to actions completely unrelated to those individuals? Should I as a German developer be excluded due to the track record of Germany having started two world wars killing millions? Should Americans be excluded due to a very extensive track record of violating international law? Should we exclude Palestinians? Israelis? Syrians? Iranians? [In case it's not obvious: Those are rhetorical questions, my position is of course no to all of them].
I just think there's nothing more wrong than discriminating against people just because of their passport, their employer or their place of residence. Maybe it's my German upbringing/socialization, but we've had multiple times in our history where the concept of **Sippenhaft** (kin liability) existed. In those dark ages of history you could be prosecuted for crimes committed by other family members.
Now of course removal from the MAINTAINERS file or any other exclusion from the Linux kernel development process is of course not in any way comparable to prosecution like imprisonment or execution. However, the principle seems the same: An individual is punished for mere association with some others who happen to be committing crimes.
Now if there really was a compelling legal argument for this (I doubt it, but let's assume for a second there is): In that case I'd expect a broad discussion against it; a reluctance to comply with it; a search for a way to circumvent said legal requirement; a petition or political movement against that requirement.
Even if there was absolutely no way around performing such a "removal of names": At the very least I'd expect some civil disobedience by at least then introducing a statement into the file that one would have hoped to still be listing those individuals as co-maintainers but one was forced by [regulation, court order, ...] to remove them.
But the least I would expect is for senior Kernel developers to simply do apply the patch with a one-sentence commit log message and thereby disrespect the work of said [presumed] Russian developers. All that does is to alienate individuals of the developer community. Not just those who are subject to said treatment today, but any others who see this sad example how Linux developers treat each other and feel discouraged from becoming or remaining active in a community with such behaviour.
It literally hurts me personally to see this happening. It's like a kick in the gut. I used to be proud about having had an involvement with the Linux kernel community in a previous life. This doesn't feel like the community I remember being part of.