NPM recently had the developer of colors.js upload a version that broke a lot of programs because he had no incentive to be aligned with the users of his libraries.
and the fact that it was opensource let others fork it and remove the broken commit, effectively enforcing the power that the users had on the creator. Had it been a closed source (free as in beer) software, the users would have been locked out and with no recourse other than caving to the creator demands.
That retaliation allowed the users to limit the damage because they could work around it. It however did nothing that was disadvantageous to the creator and thus there was no deterrent. The parties were not aligned to cooperate.
I don’t know I’d say that guy torched a lot of future employment opportunities when when he sabotaged his repos. Also obligatory: https://xkcd.com/2347/
and the fact that it was opensource let others fork it and remove the broken commit, effectively enforcing the power that the users had on the creator. Had it been a closed source (free as in beer) software, the users would have been locked out and with no recourse other than caving to the creator demands.
That retaliation allowed the users to limit the damage because they could work around it. It however did nothing that was disadvantageous to the creator and thus there was no deterrent. The parties were not aligned to cooperate.
I don’t know I’d say that guy torched a lot of future employment opportunities when when he sabotaged his repos. Also obligatory: https://xkcd.com/2347/