I don't agree with such a policy for any industry. Do you want to send developers to jail because of a bug in some medical, or otherwise critical software? There is your consequence.
I'm not planning with being combative about it. If it ever happens to me I'll just throw up my hands and walk away. I really love creating software and it is big part of my life. But I will never personally engage in this type of discussion after witnessing this happening in other places in other forms. Those who pick these fights will not see my point of view ever and it will be big waste of energy, which I'll rather spend on creating software.
The reason I engage in this now is that I'm at the periphery only observing. It doesn't take that much of my time and energy to write a small commentary on it.
I'd rather not do things that give the state more power and control over individuals. So I'm not a big fan of regulation in general. I'd rather pursue voluntary means of encouraging virtuous action where and when I can.
Engineers who directly enable this kind of technology are (in my view) not materially different from individuals who write malware. These engineers are members of the group of decision makers, because they know exactly how the code they are writing will be used. I think it's right to not encourage or support their behavior.
In other words, the degree to which I would shun someone is proportional to the knowledge and control they had in the situation under consideration.
Ah yes, the fallacy of thinking that because HN cares, the general public will inconvenience themselves.
The fallacy of thinking that software engineers as a profession will base what work they are willing to do on any form of ethics rather than getting paid.
And finally the fallacy of thinking that because I predicted what I think will happen that I also think it should happen.
The post I replied to, to remind you, claimed that people would change their ways when they were suddenly the focus of their payments being banned. But most won't be subject to that. Most will rightly or wrongly think that only affects bad people, and given that, most won't change their behaviour. Software engineers in general will do what they're paid to, very few make any sort of principled stand, if they do someone else will be hired.
Are you contending that human beings are generally very good at inconveniencing themselves and changing behaviour in the face of a small minority having their rights or liberties infringed? Because if so I'd like some of your happy pills.
People can run whatever software they want. They don't need your permission, or to know how to file a bug report, or whatever other bullshit you've dreamed up. They're also allowed to complain when a site is broken in their browser.
If you don't want to see unsophisticated complaints and bug reports, then you need to stop looking at them. Perhaps find a different profession/hobby where your user-hostile attitude actually benefits someone.
no I want people who call themselves "devs" to actually care about security or stay away from production code. These are violations of very basic security principles.
And there's nothing to stop them starting their own companies or being hired by companies that don't subscribe to the prevailing PC orthodoxy. And with their deep obsessiveness they may well write better software. Or are you saying they should not be allowed to?
wtf? You people created a problem that didn't exist before, and now you're attacking people for not caring about a non-problem? The origin of the work "master" is not "oppression" and "slavery", it's simply "control" or "authority". If you don't understand this, and if you think that others should care because you are offended by a non-existent problem that you have created, then software is absolutely not the career for you. What comes next after "master"? Binary? Admin? Terminal? Kill? Server? Abort?
I wasn't attacking your choice. I was explaining what your choice consists of and why I made a different one.
If you don't want people to do something particular with your code, yet you choose a license that permits it, then by definition, you chose the wrong license.
I'm going to chalk your childish, immature and unprofessional insults down to frustration. And to prevent further noise, I am not going to reply to any further comments made by you.
Why would I want to? Based on your persistant but unpersuasive stalking of my comments, you've clearly done something you know is wrong, and I remain convinced that you should be segregated from tech development for the safety of end users and other developers alike.
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