An open letter published in September 2025 by maintainers of critical open source infrastructure, including foundations like the OpenJS Foundation, Python Software Foundation, and Rust Foundation, calls for corporations to provide sustainable funding and support for the open source components they rely on. The letter highlights how big tech companies profit from open source projects while the maintainers and communities struggle with underfunding, increased demands, and the risks of supply chain attacks, making the current model unsustainable.
Key points from the open letter:
Problem:
Large corporations depend heavily on open source infrastructure (package registries like PyPI, npm, crates.io) without contributing sufficient financial or development support to sustain it.
Consequences:
This reliance creates a fragile software supply chain, increasing the risk of outages, breaches, and supply chain attacks that can impact critical infrastructure worldwide.
Call to Action:
The letter urges major tech companies to contribute to the long-term sustainability of these vital projects by providing funding, resources, and support.
Goal:
To establish alignment between the use of open source and responsibility for its stewardship, ensuring the health and resilience of the entire technology ecosystem.
Corporations' role in open source:
Innovation:
Corporations benefit from open source by reducing their own development costs and fostering rapid innovation and interoperability.
Supply Chain Reliance:
They build platforms, cloud services, and AI models on top of open source projects.
Need for Contribution:
The letter argues that companies benefiting from this foundation have a responsibility to help maintain it, similar to other critical infrastructure.
Dublin profits from being a satellite of The City of London and this is a great chance to become a satellite of The Silicon Valley.
These makers need a legal framework with dedicated experts in a juridical supporting system in publishing and use licenses dedicated to software creation and use. GPL is not Freeware and their place of operation must be the place of Juridical settlements (no matter the Firm saying).
Furthermore, they need cheap, ideally renewable, energy and spaces to host server farms that must have ideally direct internet backbone links. A server farm needs little staff, can be in remote areas, have an independent mixed electricity source and use satellite uplinks giving old and abandoned houses and industrial facilities new life in all sizes for thousands of square meters in size in need of large electric supply to small several dozent square meters operating upcycled based systems running for several hours on only battery feeded by wind, solar, aggricoltoural biogas and ethanol generators serving clients world wide.
#provos #IRAmovement
