The title really undersells it, it seems like under a Biden Executive Order, free/open-source software will have to ban all Russian contributions. Its unclear if American developers would be allowed to contribute to Russian software like Nginx

  • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    2 months ago

    I wonder if there is any merit to this or if the government actually suspects or believes there is a large risk giving certain maintainers access.

    I could actually see NSA protecting Linux with reasonable intentions, but I could also just see the whitehouse making dumbass moves because some shmuck wants credit for “securing” something.

    Either way, I don’t think it’s large enough that it’s much of an issue.

    • aidan@lemmy.worldOP
      62·
      2 months ago

      I don’t think this is about security implications, but I may be wrong. My understanding is this is related to the export sanctions, meant to hamper the Russian economy.

      • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        That seems weird considering anyone can easily access and fork it if they want.

        Reminds me of the old crypto algorithm export laws which fell apart for the same reason. Now curve25519 is even in FIPS as the default next to the NIST curve.