ok, since I’ve been mentioned twice here, I figure I should chime in on this trainwreck.
I have no issues with respect to user privacy. My objection stems from the fact that code I freely contributed to the Julia language is now going to be used, without any prior discussion, as a way for Julia Computing – an organization that didn’t exist when my first registry PR was merged – to raise revenue. I object to this use of my code, though I realize there’s little I can do about it given its open-source license.
However legal it may be, in my opinion it’s not right to appropriate the work of volunteers who have taken time to learn and promote this language and use it for your own material benefit by changing the terms under which the work was originally submitted.
Had I known that my packages would be used to track individuals for the financial benefit of some group of other people, I never would have submitted my first PR in 2015.
This move, inasmuch as it engenders hostility from developers, is also short-sighted: You can own the painting; but you don’t own the artist.