Publication Type

Conference Proceeding Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

11-2022

Abstract

Reliance on third-party libraries is now commonplace in contemporary software engineering. Being open source in nature, these libraries should advocate for a world where the freedoms and opportunities of open source software can be enjoyed by all. Yet, there is a growing concern related to maintainers using their influence to make political stances (i.e., referred to as protestware). In this paper, we reflect on the impact of world politics on software ecosystems, especially in the context of the ongoing War in Ukraine. We show three cases where world politics has had an impact on a software ecosystem, and how these incidents may result in either benign or malignant consequences. We further point to specific opportunities for research, and conclude with a research agenda with ten research questions to guide future research directions.

Keywords

Libraries, Software Ecosystem, Protestware, Supply Chain Attacks

Discipline

Software Engineering

Research Areas

Software and Cyber-Physical Systems

Publication

ESEC/FSE '22: Proceedings of the 30th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Singapore, Singapore, November 14-18

First Page

1600

Last Page

1604

ISBN

9781450394130

Identifier

10.1145/3540250.3560882

Publisher

ACM

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1145/3540250.3560882

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