Comment by treesknees
4 years ago
The full title is "Linux bans University of Minnesota for sending buggy patches in the name of research" and it seems to justify the ban. It's not as though these students were just bad programmers, they were intentionally introducing bugs, performing unethical experimentation on volunteers and members of another organization without their consent.
Unfortunately even if the latest submissions were sent with good intentions and have nothing to do with the bug research, the University has certainly lost the trust of the kernel maintainers.
The full titre should actually be "Linux bans University of Minnesota for sending buggy patches in the name of research and thinking they can add insult to injury by playing the victims"
> I respectfully ask you to cease and desist from making wild accusations that are bordering on slander.
> These patches were sent as part of a new static analyzer that I wrote and it's sensitivity is obviously not great. I sent patches on the hopes to get feedback. We are not experts in the linux kernel and repeatedly making these statements is disgusting to hear.
> Obviously, it is a wrong step but your preconceived biases are so strong that you make allegations without merit nor give us any benefit of doubt. I will not be sending any more patches due to the attitude that is not only unwelcome but also intimidating to newbies and non experts.
This idiot should be banned from the University, not from the linux kernel.
His department presumably allowed this to proceed
From the looks of the dialogue, it was all of the above with the addition of lying about what they were up to when confronted. I would think all of this constitutes a serious violation of any real university's research ethics standards.