you have the causality backwards: makers of open-source software are less abusive than makers of closed-source software not because open-source is such a good safeguard, but because the sorts of organizations that would be abusive don’t open source in the first place.
Really? I just provided an example of a mechanism that helps keep open source software projects ethical—the fact that if the manufacturers attempt to exploit their customers it is much easier for the customers to switch to a more ethical fork—because creating such a fork no longer violates copyright law. Though you said you were pointing out problems with my reasoning, you didn’t actually point out any problems with that reasoning.
We saw an example of this kind of thing very recently—with LibreOffice. The developers got afraid that their adopted custodian, Oracle, was going to screw the customers of their project—so, to protect their customers and themselves, they forked it—and went their own way.
if there is an unethical AI running somewhere, then forking the code will not save humanity. Forking is a defense against not having good software to use yourself; it is not a defense against other people running software that does bad things to you.
If other people are running software that does bad things to you then running good quality software yourself most certainly is a kind of defense. It means you are better able to construct defenses, better able to anticipate their attacks—and so on. Better brains makes you more powerful.
Compare with the closed-source alternative: If other people are running software that does bad things to you—and you have no way to run such software yourself—since it is on their server and running secret source that is also protected by copyright law—you are probably pretty screwed.
Really? I just provided an example of a mechanism that helps keep open source software projects ethical—the fact that if the manufacturers attempt to exploit their customers it is much easier for the customers to switch to a more ethical fork—because creating such a fork no longer violates copyright law. Though you said you were pointing out problems with my reasoning, you didn’t actually point out any problems with that reasoning.
We saw an example of this kind of thing very recently—with LibreOffice. The developers got afraid that their adopted custodian, Oracle, was going to screw the customers of their project—so, to protect their customers and themselves, they forked it—and went their own way.
If other people are running software that does bad things to you then running good quality software yourself most certainly is a kind of defense. It means you are better able to construct defenses, better able to anticipate their attacks—and so on. Better brains makes you more powerful.
Compare with the closed-source alternative: If other people are running software that does bad things to you—and you have no way to run such software yourself—since it is on their server and running secret source that is also protected by copyright law—you are probably pretty screwed.