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In protest, a developer purposely deployed updates that corrupted two popular open source solutions downloaded millions of times.
The developer has caused problems with the operation of a number of software.
REUTERS
Marak Squires, an open source developer active in the open source software development and hosting platform GitHub and the public software registry npm, has played a dirty trick on thousands of apps. It has released updates for two of its popular open source libraries in order to corrupt them on purpose. Downloaded millions of times by other developers, they created operational problems for their respective projects.
Purpose of the operation: to oppose the use of its open source codes by companies, mainly those with high incomes, which exploit them to make money. “With all due respect, I will no longer be supporting Fortune 500 companies (and other smaller companies) with my free work,” the rebellious developer said.
Account suspended
In practice, the sabotaged version of the colors.js library, which adds colors to the javascript console, generated strange letters and symbols with non-ASCII characters that began with the words “LIBERTY LIBERTY LIBERTY”, reports Bleeping Computer. As for faker.js, which generates fake data for demos, it contained the question “What really happened to Aaron Swartz?” in its readme file. As a reminder, this developer activist of digital freedom committed suicide in 2013 while being prosecuted for electronic fraud.
Marak Squires’ GitHub account was suspended on January 6, when the previous version of faker.js was reinstated on the platform. The next day, a new functional update for colors.js was also posted online.
(man)