The author of a popular set of PPA repositories , which host builds of new versions of various programs, has limited access to some PPAs in protest the policies of companies that exploit the work of enthusiasts to implement commercial projects while acting like freeloaders, merely consuming the results of others' work without any contribution on their part.
Jonathon F feels insulted that he is being manipulated and used as free labor to solve their business problems. One company asked him to recreate certain packages needed for ongoing operations but refused to pay for the work, justifying it by saying there was no budget allocated for it.
Jonathon F commented on such actions: "You have been using my free resources to support your business for years? You asked me to do certain work directly related to the support of your business? You don't have a budget to pay for the work, and you expect me to work for free? No, thank you."
He then decided to restrict access to some repositories requested by commercial companies.
The reason for closing public access cited was the constant and ongoing abuse by companies using the repositories for commercial gain, while showing flagrant disregard for the work needed to maintain these repositories. To users Jonathon F previously communicated with, he offered to send him their Launchpad ID to restore access to the closed PPAs.
Companies are offered the opportunity to become sponsors of a desired PPA through direct or indirect contributions to the upstream project, after which this PPA will be returned to the public list with a note about the sponsor. The interest here is not so much in the desire to obtain funding but in the intention to help companies understand that even though open source software is freely available, it still has a certain cost, and companies should contribute in some way to the common cause, for instance through donations, sponsorships, hiring developers, or providing their employees the opportunity to spend 20% of their time on participation in open projects.
Public access is closed for the following PPAs:
- FFMPEG 4
- ZFS on Linux
- ZFS on Linux (0.7.13)
- ZFS on Linux (Debian)
- Python 2.7
- Python 3.5
- Python 3.6
- Python 3.7
- Redis
- Wireguard
- git
- OpenJDK
- Perl6 (build dependencies)
- pypy
- Enki
- GP2
- Isabelle
- JRuby
- Julia
- MiniZinc
- PRISM
- Protégé
- SUMO
- Walksat
- WinDLX
- Albert
- Ansible
- Ballast
- Barrier
- Bazel
- CUDA tools
- Development tools
- earlyoom
- Emacs 26
- GNU IMP
Source: opennet.ru
