Re: no to war in Ukraine

[Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com>]

On Sun, 27 Feb 2022 at 18:18, Jacob Hrbek <kreyren@rixotstudio.cz> wrote:

> I feel fucking sick and guilty, my mental
> health is in absolute shit and i didn't sleep for more then 3 hours a
> day since the war started blaming myself for all the work that i've done
> on Free Software and in Free Software Activism in the last ~14 years,
> because my work in Free Software contributed to the capability of
> russian military to do this war to bomb cities full of my brothers and
> sisters, killing newborns, children, elderly and committing war crimes
> against unarmed citizens scared for their life who are hiding at their
> homes.

One of my former colleagues once said, metaphorically: “I have made a
screwdriver. It can drive a screw, or it can be poked into an eye.”
The point being, don’t blame yourself for misuse/abuse of the tools
you make.

> >> I do and I've made a statement on that in
> >> https://qoto.org/@kreyren/107851975317924221 in short taking steps to
> >> reduce russian access to my software and hardware by revoking the right
> >> to use, study, improve and distribute + considering to take identity
> >> verification and vetting for sensitive projects such as open-source
> >> aircraft that could be used as a drone.

I might not have got it right, but if you’re thinking of denying
access by citizenship, that’s awfully misguided.

Our [Russian] government does that kind of thing. “This web site here
has a page that contains banned information. Since TLS protects the
exact URL from being seen by the Internet provider, we’re going to
deny you access to the whole site. And if your provider cannot snoop
SNI, then they can deny you access by IP address, thus including all
other sites hosted on the same server.” Along the same lines: “KMnO4
is useful as an antiseptic, but it also can be used to synthesize
narcotics or explosives, so no, you cannot buy it from your local
pharmacy.” Basically, prevention of activities that are declared
unlawful is considered a higher priority than keeping lawful use
possible, no matter the ratio of harm to usefulness.

Please consider not being like them.