Today, the whole world is shuddering at the war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine. Putin’s troops are bombing Kharkov and firing rockets at Kyiv. The civilian population is dying, children are dying, lives are being maimed. Modern totalitarianism may seem stylistically and ideologically like the seemingly turned pages of history during the Second World War. But at the same time, completely different means of hybrid warfare are used.

All these missiles, guidance systems, tanks, and corrupt banks run on software. 80% of it is stolen open-source software. Instead of supporting open-source, Russian organizations that are directly involved in supporting the Putin regime carry out their activities using programs created under the Apache, GPL, MIT licenses. The Russian Ministry of Defense uses a slightly modified Linux to support its headquarters and its equipment. Your code, our code is being used for evil.

We suggest:

1. Immediately close GitHub for the Russian segment of the Internet. No matter how symbolic this step is, it is important for solidarity with those who are now dying under the bombs in Ukraine.
2. Call on the developer community to change free software licenses to prohibit the use of such code in countries with low levels of freedom, those under totalitarian regimes: Russia, North Korea, Syria.
3. Immediately after the ban, organize the monitoring of illegal use of open-source software. The results of this monitoring should be used to prepare and file a claim against those funds that were not spent on the development of industry, but for the humiliation of the honor and dignity of people, the taking of innocent lives. Sooner or later, the aggressors must pay their price.

#StopOpenSourceMurder