6 mo. ago • 98%

Open Source Infrastructure must be a publicly funded service. - Matrix.org

matrix.org Open Source Infrastructure must be a publicly funded service.

Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communications

38 comments

Music to my ears. Tax money should go to open source projects.

90
- And all tax funded tech should be open source.
  
  95
  
  Yes!
  
  24
  
  This should also include tech used on and on the behalf of tax payers.
  
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- Public Money, Public Code
  
  21
- Who's tax money?
  
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  Any first world nation.
  
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How the hell are NATO and other large orgs not funding Matrix? Blows my mind.

A particularly amazing real-life example of this came from a certain Ministry of Defence last week, whose procurement department (on being asked to help fund core Matrix development, given their operational dependency on Matrix) said: “You have to understand, we’re responsible for taxpayer money here. We can’t just make a donation to your open source project.” Apparently if we had built the same tech as a proprietary product, paying for it would apparently have been an infinitely better use of taxpayer money.

I... don't know what to say.

Anti Commercial AI thingy

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

41
- You‘re as spot on as always. Why do I always read the most sane comments and then find you there? Btw your new signature is fire. Have a great day.
  
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  Thank you 🙂 Very kind.
  
  You have a good day too!
  
  Anti Commercial AI thingy
  
  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
  
  4
Element is literally a private, for-profit company. And they're asking for donations and public funding?

40
- The Matrix.org is Community Interest Company registered in UK, and its full name is THE MATRIX.ORG FOUNDATION C.I.C., please, consider this as a proof proof.
  
  Given this information, I would guess it's relatively safe to donate/give funding to the Matrix.org because its financial flows should be protected by UK law.
  
  BUT, it seems they never made a full report of incomes/spendings, the first one is expected in April 2024. But it's already April 2024, and I don't see a report. Anyway, it's better to read original Issue in regard of such things, I might understood it incorrectly
  
  17
- but it uses an open api, i think thats their point
  
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  and open source
  
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- This post is by the Matrix foundation, not Element.
  
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  This post was made by the CEO and founder of Element
  
  2
- Private, for-profit, and let's not forget antagonistic to the GDPR.
  
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I can already picture it

"you don't want to open a government backdoor? No more tax money for you"

"your foss project needs to be verified by the government to be selectable for founding, you don't want to? Well, no tax money for you"

"For your foss project to be created we need to verify it now that by law all foss projects receive tax money, you don't want? Delete everything"

And this is how you will own nothing and will be "happy". You can't escape the surveillance by using foss, go live in the woods before it's to late, and don't forget to carry your tin foil hat, be safe.

34
- Backdoor? Even if it isn't blatantly obvious - some autistic kid will notice a program runs 0.05 seconds slower and will work it out.
  
  At the very least if you're going to be backdooring your code you might as well add "back door goes here" to your PR so we can easily cut it out when the hard fork happens without the backdoor included.
  
  9
  
  Why the fuck does everyone keep referring to Andres Freund, the skilled Microsoft engineer who discovered this as an "autistic kid"? Can everyone doing that please fuck off?
  
  Even if he is autistic, which I am not finding anything suggesting he is, this shouldn't be a part of the conversation. He protected the Linux community from a major exploit, just give him the credit for a job well done.
  
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- "you want a government backdoor on GPL licensed code? publish the backdoor for everyone to use, see and exploit/check for themselves. And/or watch as people simply take a version of the software built from a more reputable source without that backdoor instead. Thanks for the money!"
  
  "you want to force all foss projects existing in the global internet across countries to get paid by you or close? enjoy your logistic nightmare as you pay to be made fun of by all other countries while I fork projects with one click"
  
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- "We give you money, so that you don't put a backdoor from another country in your software."
  
  4
- I applaud your skepticism, though I do feel that having the source open does help make that harder.
  
  Every time I see tinfoil references I often wonder if people realize the relation to tinfoil and blocking radiation or alpha particles, as they come in different sizes.
  
  Hell people wear leaded vests at the dentist to block radiation from oral xrays.
  
  Should we* start another silly club, Lead+Tinfoil? We all talk shit on the web but it seems like the majority is always the dumb masses getting scammed and duped and the weird guy in the corner gets ahead.
  
  3
- That's fair.
  
  1
- My code belongs to everyone. There's as bug. You should probably fix that.
  
  1
  
  Our code
  
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Imagine having NATO, one of the largest organisations in the world, leeching off your open source project, lol.

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- That's not what the article says, but I was also confused at first. They fund New Vector directly it seems.
  
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  I mean the fact that they are scrambling for funding while being vital infrastructure to them i think is the larger issue. Like at this point i dont care if its new vector or matrix (tho ideally matrix) they shouldn't be begging for money when you supply NATO.
  
  2
- Imagine Apple making you agree to not use iTunes to make nuclear weapons... oh wait...
  
  2

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