Re:Microsoft President: We Need a Hippocratic Oath for Softw...
by Ygg2 on Monday August 10, 2020 @06:11PM
(#24114631)
> I would if I were inventing dynamite
> I wouldn't do anything:
That's hypocritical. Nobel didn't invent dynamite because he wanted people to blow themselves up. He invented dynamite because nitro-glycerin was a horrid mess used in mining.
He definitely didn't have an easy technical solution to problem of people misusing dynamite.
You can either say in both case do nothing, or in both case do something.
I would if I were inventing dynamite, but that's not what this scenario is.
A person working for a knife manufacturer need not worry about it being used for murder, as that's not what the primary use. And facial recognition is a lot less harmful than even that.
Trust me: I work for a company that produces certain goods used for all kinds of good and nefarious purposes depending on who buys it. My conscience is clear.
> But, let's change it a bit more personal. You write an awesome OSS yaml parser. It's so good, that GFW of China uses it as a main component, and this gets published in the news.
> What would you do? Nothing you did changed, but suddenly your work is powering an unethical component.
I wouldn't do anything:
1. This is milder than the knife scenario above. Of course I don't care if people use it in a poor way - unless there is a straightforward technical mitigation I could do. In your example, given that the source code is available, that is not an option.
2. There's a certain hypocrisy in releasing something as open source and then complaining about how it is used. If it bothers you, then modify your license!