I personally want an OSS Union for situations in which trillion dollar megacorps attempt to bully OSS interop project maintainers and give them trauma over C&Ds which they get almost no support for.
I would pay at least $20 per month to be part of this union. I would like it to protect all OSS devs even if they have no propensity to pay.
I think this will be an important tool to fight enshittification.
Unions (at least in theory) have a way of bringing an employer to the negotiating table by getting a large enough portion of the employees to stop working and bring the employer's business to a halt. in the days of factory picket lines, they were able to prevent other people from working even if they wanted to. this is what gives a union negotiating power. I can't see anything similar for OS developers. What would be the threat? "We'll stop giving you free code?"
regarding a protection union, what you're talking about seems to be legal insurance, and that already exists, but it's significantly more expensive than $20/month.
benoau•54m ago