[GNC-dev] GnuCash and Github

[Geert Janssens]

Some may have heard the rumblings around github semi-recently. The software 
conservancy is calling free software projects to seek alternatives. They motivate this in much 
more detail over here:
https://sfconservancy.org/GiveUpGitHub/[1]

In short, they claim github is a proprietary tool that's leveraging the hosted free software for 
their commercial purposes. In itself that would be acceptable as long as it's done according 
to the licenses of these free software projects. There have been several situations where 
that's not the case, "copilot" being the latest and most worry-some.

Is this something we as a free software project should think about and possibly act on ?

Personally I don't like it at all that I chose to write code under a free software license to 
ensure my effort helps and benefits the free software ecosystem. Yet that a commercial 
company then decides to use my code to train an AI that's meant to help build proprietary 
software. The legal status of that is still very unclear and certainly not what I intended my 
code to be used for.

That is obviously only my personal opinion, but I wanted to express it as starting point for a 
wider discussion on this topic.

Is the golden cage that is github to developers really becoming detrimental to real free 
software principles ?

Should we do something about this ? Once hooked into the github ecosystem it's pretty hard 
to leave, as the sfc also acknowledges. They do offer initial suggestions for alternatives, but 
they are not at the same level as github currently.

Please share your views on this topic as well.

Regards,

Geert

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[1] https://sfconservancy.org/GiveUpGitHub/