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FFmpeg to Google: Fund Us or Stop Sending Bugs (thenewstack.io)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/opensource@lemmy.ml
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[–] 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Has anyone read the article? I barely understand what the fuss is actually about, the text is meandering and repeats semi-relevant details (specifically the part about libxml2).

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  • [–] 90 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    In a nutshell:

    Google is spending a shitload of money to find bugs in FOSS projects, but then refuses to spend the fraction more it would cost to contribute an actual fix, rather than just a bug report.

    Basically, they are willing a spend a ton on finding a bunch of work for FOSS developers to do, but not on actually getting any of it done.

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  • [–] 44 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Not just that the bug they reported only affects some obscure LucasArt codec which isn't even included in the build by default. Plus I'm pretty sure Google heavily uses ffmpeg for YouTube.

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  • [–] 29 points 9 months ago

    Plus google doesn't really care if the obscure LucasArt codec is actually fixed, they're raising the bugs publicly to sell their AI. This is marketing, not security. The more bugs it finds the better, since sales doesn't care about the quality of the bugs found.

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  • [–] 36 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I read the article, and the title is a pretty decent summary. AI is being used to find a never-ending supply of bugs (a number of which are trivial at best). The issue that not only are the bugs being found by unlimited resourced AI, those same processes are revealing them to the public after a time. This is placing undue burden on unpaid volunteers. So "FFmpeg to Google: Fund Us or Stop Sending Bugs".

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  • [–] 26 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    and some are, apparently, obscure af:

    “an issue with decoding LucasArts Smush codec, specifically the first 10-20 frames of Rebel Assault 2, a game from 1995.”

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  • [–] 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    To add to the other replies: This is what AI is for. Not to replace labor, but to enhance the ruling class’ ability to exploit labor.

    As a convenient side effect: If you use AI to spam people with bug reports, you’re basically DDoSing them… unless they then decide to use AI to help triage the avalanche. And wouldn’t you know it, Google just happens to sell AI to help you solve this problem they made for you!

    “Nice FOSS project you got there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.”

    And also also: If FOSS in general turns into a ghost town… where are you gonna turn to get that boilerplate code you need to do a common task? That’s right, AI baby! All roads lead to boiling the Great Lakes so Nvidia can pay itself back.

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