Aaron Thomas wrote to Mike Powell <=-

I didn't watch the video, but I wonder how can Biden dictate what
Russians can and can't do?

It can't. It can't even dictate what U.S. citizens can/can't do.

It seems like a distraction. But where is the driver of the Biden-Harrismobile going with this?

It's just more division and messing things up.

The Elitists are like little kids. They are losing the game, therefore they will flip the game board over and scatter the pieces.


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Russians can and can't do?

It can't. It can't even dictate what U.S. citizens can/can't do.

It seems like a distraction. But where is the driver of the Biden-Harrismobile going with this?

It's just more division and messing things up.

The Elitists are like little kids. They are losing the game, therefore they will flip the game board over and scatter the pieces.

That's the way to really win the game! :)

This is probably just Biden trying to look like he's tough on Russia. He already lost that game a couple years ago.

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Biden's Executive Order 14071, forbids Russians from working with or using GPL'd software made in the USA. And that includes the Linux Kernel.

I didn't watch the video, but I wonder how can Biden dictate what Russians can
and can't do?

It is part of the sanctions against Russia. Many government agencies, and private companies, forbid what they call "offshore developers" (anyone
living outside the US) having access to their code and/or data, or at least restrict developers residing in certain countrie (ex. Iran).

If you google around, you will find a story about an unidentified company
who either had no such policy, or just plain goofed, and accidentally hired what turned out to be a North Korean hacker. That was in the news within
the last week or two.

I think it is a good policy but I am not sure how you enforce it.


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I didn't watch the video, but I wonder how can Biden dictate what Russia can
and can't do?

It is part of the sanctions against Russia. Many government agencies,
and private companies, forbid what they call "offshore developers"
(anyone living outside the US) having access to their code and/or data,
or at least restrict developers residing in certain countrie (ex. Iran).

I'm still confused about which code they're referring to. There is a lot of open source software that was made in the USA, and it's not likely that all the developers are as anti-Russia as Biden pretends to be.

I think it is a good policy but I am not sure how you enforce it.

Yea, the enforcement part is puzzling. We can't even regulate the flow of people, but now we're supposedly going to regulate the flow of text files.

Of course there are lots of details pertaining to this that I will never know. Hopefully Biden knows what he's doing. LOL

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It is part of the sanctions against Russia. Many government agencies, and private companies, forbid what they call "offshore developers" (anyone living outside the US) having access to their code and/or data, or at least restrict developers residing in certain countrie (ex. Iran).

I'm still confused about which code they're referring to. There is a lot of open source software that was made in the USA, and it's not likely that all th
developers are as anti-Russia as Biden pretends to be.

Any code that is copyrighted in the USA, per the sanctions, is not allowed to have Russians working on it. That includes code copyrighted under the GPL, which Linux is.

I know executive orders supposedly only cover federal agencies, but I
listened to a podcast the other day (which I think I linked here) where the podcaster explained that it is actually covered because the copyrights are granted (and also denied) by a federal agency.

If the code is not copyrighted, or is not copyrighted in the USA, then
Russians can still work on it.

Something else interesting is how the podcaster compared/contrasted it to the sanctions against the company Huawei, a Chinese company. He pointed out
that the difference is that the Huawei santions prevent US entities from sharing tech with Huawei, but does *not* prevent Huawei from sharing tech
with US entities.

So Huawei developers can work on code copyrighted in the USA, but Russians cannot.

BTW, if you google this situation, Linus Torvalds is 100% OK with it.

I think it is a good policy but I am not sure how you enforce it.

Yea, the enforcement part is puzzling. We can't even regulate the flow of people, but now we're supposedly going to regulate the flow of text files.

Torvalds seems confident that the Russians won't be working on the linux
kernel code, most likely because the Linux Foundation won't allow it.


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Any code that is copyrighted in the USA, per the sanctions, is not
allowed to have Russians working on it. That includes code copyrighted under the GPL, which Linux is.

That makes more sense. And while this executive order stands, this can affect a lot of Russian businesses that depend on our software.

I misunderstood this information at first. I thought it was something that was for Russian hacker deterrence, but I was wrong.

But this sounds like an attack on Russia's civilians, like on their businesses especially.

If the code is not copyrighted, or is not copyrighted in the USA, then Russians can still work on it.

So if I understand this correctly, then they're going to need a new OS, which could mean that 99% of their software will need to be rewritten for compatibility with the new OS. Sounds challenging!

So Huawei developers can work on code copyrighted in the USA, but
Russians cannot.

That sounds unfair but it might not be a fair comparison because that issue actually is about security and not about punishment. (Right?)

BTW, if you google this situation, Linus Torvalds is 100% OK with it.

I'm not exactly blaming him for his position on this, but it sounds like very elitist behavior. If I create something that's for everybody, I want everybody to have access to it.

Torvalds seems confident that the Russians won't be working on the linux kernel code, most likely because the Linux Foundation won't allow it.

Until now I never realized how dictatorial these Linux people are. I switched to Linux 14 years ago thinking that I was distancing myself from elitists but this makes me feel like maybe I shouldn't get too comfortable with it.

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Any code that is copyrighted in the USA, per the sanctions, is not allowed to have Russians working on it. That includes code copyrighted under the GPL, which Linux is.

That makes more sense. And while this executive order stands, this can affect lot of Russian businesses that depend on our software.

This particular EO doesn't prevent the businesses from using the software.
It just prevents the Russian developers from contributing to the codebase.

However, the overall sanctions may very well prevent Russian entities from obtaining software from US sources.

But this sounds like an attack on Russia's civilians, like on their businesses
especially.

The EO itself doesn't, but the overall sanctions likely do.

If the code is not copyrighted, or is not copyrighted in the USA, then Russians can still work on it.

So if I understand this correctly, then they're going to need a new OS, which could mean that 99% of their software will need to be rewritten for compatibility with the new OS. Sounds challenging!

No, they can continue to use whatever OS they are using, they just may not
be able to upgrade it (I am not sure about that). Because linux is open source, they can continue to use it all they want technically, and they can make changes to their own source code respositories. They just cannot send those changes back upstream to be added to the official linux code.

One other thing to keep in mind... I am not sure about Russia but other countries like China and North Korea maintain their own "official" versions
of open sources OSes, so the US cannot really cut them off. They can just
put pressure on US entities not to accept updates from those sources.

BTW, if you google this situation, Linus Torvalds is 100% OK with it.

I'm not exactly blaming him for his position on this, but it sounds like very elitist behavior. If I create something that's for everybody, I want everybody
to have access to it.

I was a little surprised but if you read his position, and keep in mind
that he is originally from Finland, it makes more sense.

Torvalds seems confident that the Russians won't be working on the linux kernel code, most likely because the Linux Foundation won't allow it.

Until now I never realized how dictatorial these Linux people are. I switched to Linux 14 years ago thinking that I was distancing myself from elitists but this makes me feel like maybe I shouldn't get too comfortable with it.

I don't think it is elitism in this case. In the case of open source, if I were managing a software project based in the US and didn't adhere to the sanctions, I would be worried that I might become a target for Russian
hackers by leaving my code open to them. With this order especially, I
would expect some would be motivated to infect projects, especially if they
are projects that US corporations might use.


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