Re:Open letter from researchers involved in the “hypocrite c...
by tkgally on Saturday April 24, 2021 @11:11PM
(#26930068)
Good suggestion, especially getting the IRB involved. The board failed to recognize that the target of the research was not inanimate software but human beings.
Re:Open letter from researchers involved in the “hypocrite c...
by justinjlynn on Saturday April 24, 2021 @11:45PM
(#26930203)
Thank you and my point precisely. This was both an individual and systemic failure and must be treated and rectified as such with all due seriousness.
Re:Open letter from researchers involved in the “hypocrite c...
by denton-scratch on Sunday April 25, 2021 @05:02AM
(#26931354)
I'd consider that a pretty good apology, if that were the one they had made. I'd like to see it expressed by the university ethics board, not just by the researchers.
I wouldn't trust those researchers again, not for anything. Free software depends heavily on trust. It's astonishing that it works so well; but if you break trust, it's very hard to repair the fractures.
The legal arrangements around free software are fairly fluid, because there hasn't been much case-law, because there's not much money sloshing around for Free Software developers to pay lawyers. Banning pull-requests from that college is much cheaper than sueing.
I hope the whole uni stays banned until the ethics board issues their own apology.
Then let it go, I say. People make mistakes. We shouldn't blame everyone for the mistakes of a few.
But we have to protect the Linux kernel; billions of people depend on it's correctness.
[signed personally, by every involved researcher, professor, IRB member, and all of the relevant university leadership including the board]
Something like that would do nicely, in my opinion. Then they'd have to absolutely follow through on it. Ideally, they'd also ask involved members of the community so harmed, among other experts, to independently review and watch the process to ensure no further harm is being done, progress is made, and public accountability is kept.