Re: rewriting history; Was: Concerns/questions around Software Heritage Archive

[Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>]

Hi,

On lun., 18 mars 2024 at 12:10, MSavoritias <email@msavoritias.me> wrote:

> The right of a trans person to ask a project to not advertise their 
> deadname was never in question.
>
> Guix is a place that supports trans people and anybody else that wants 
> to change their name.

There is a difference between “advertise” and “part of the history”.

Do not take me wrong.  The right to be forgotten is one topic.  However,
as many people are saying: it is not an easy question.  There is legal
questions, technical questions, social questions, etc.

For what it is worth, Guix is built around the concept of immutability.
This is a core concept and deep in Guix internals.

Therefore, it would be more constructive if you come with a
proof-of-concept allowing “history rewrite” and strong “software
identification” property [1].  Else, the discussion is leading nowhere,
IMHO.

1: https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2024/identifying-software/

Cheers,
simon