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Microsoft opens a "high priority" bug ticket in ffmpeg, attempting to leech the free labour of the maintainers (trac.ffmpeg.org)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Sibbo@sopuli.xyz to c/programming@programming.dev

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Microsoft employee:

Hi, This is a high priority ticket and the FFmpeg version is currently used in a highly visible product in Microsoft. We have customers experience issues with Caption during Teams Live Event. Please help

Maintainer's comment on twitter:

After politely requesting a support contract from Microsoft for long term maintenance, they offered a one-time payment of a few thousand dollars instead.

This is unacceptable.

And further:

The lesson from the xz fiasco is that investments in maintenance and sustainability are unsexy and probably won't get a middle manager their promotion but pay off a thousandfold over many years.

But try selling that to a bean counter

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[+] lysdexic@programming.dev -17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Completely disagree. This is how it works, Microsoft get software for free but they have no authority to prioritise other people’s scheduling

I don't know where you're getting the prioritization issue. Anyone in the world who is able to create an issue in a bug tracker can claim anything, but it's always the people doing the bug triages who determine priorities. It means exactly as it means: nothing.

The "is this fixed yet" posts in bug reports by now is a meme in the floss world.

I think you're trying too hard to find something to be outraged over.

[-] Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 7 points 7 months ago

The scheduling demand thing is referring specifically to the project manager going “we need this for an upcoming major product launch, so you need to fix this before the launch.” It feels like Microsoft cracking the whip to try getting free labor, because it is.

If they truly can’t do without it for their product launch, they can fork it and fix the bug themselves. Surely Microsoft has the resources and brainpower to do so. But the PM didn’t want to do that, because it means they’d be spending their own time and resources on it.

[-] aidan@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

But they have no whip to crack the guy literally just said please help

[-] melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee 7 points 7 months ago

They made a demand, based on a product launch time line. This is absurdly rude, abd basically treating open source like slave labor instead of commons.

[-] lysdexic@programming.dev -1 points 7 months ago

They made a demand, based on a product launch time line.

If you read the same bug report I read, you wouldn't make that claim. They expressed their personal needs, which are their own and theirs alone, and don't extend beyond their personal roadmap.

This is absurdly rude (...)

The issue stated they found a bug that they had to get fixed. They said it was important to them for their own personal reasons. It's laughable to describe what amounts to a run-of-the-mill bug report as "absurdly rude".

Do you actually work on software for a living?

treating open source like slave labor

I'm sorry, what? Do you even pay attention to what you're writing?

this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024

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