Bonum Certa Men Certa

Enrico Zini, Mattia Rizzolo, Plagiarism & Debian

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 29, 2024

Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.

Plagiarism involves two elements:

Linux distributions are particularly challenging when it comes to attribution of work. The package maintainers do very little work compared to the developers who created the software. Now we have the phenomena of Debian Developer titles for people who never developed anything at all and never will. They are put up on a pedestal to look down their noses at the real developers of upstream projects. Imagine groupies pretending that they are members of the band, despite not being able to play any instruments. The end user sees the identity of the distribution, such as Debian or Fedora, in a more prominent position than the names of real developers.

In recent times we've seen people go even further in their efforts to obfuscate who does the work. People have noticed the list of developers has been hacked to insult people for political reasons:

Enrico Zini, Mattia Rizzolo

The Debian QA page, before it was hacked too, gives a better indication of my extensive status and rights as a skilled co-author of Debian. Looking at this, we can see the Not a Debian Developer is more than an insult, it demonstrates a chronic lack of integrity in the Debian "community".

Daniel Pocock, Debian Developer, QA Page

The software for maintaining the web page is developed by Enrico Zini and Mattia Rizzolo. Looking in the Git repository, we can see that Zini and Rizzolo modified the code so that people can override the account status line, insert insults and obfuscate the identities of real developers:

Enrico Zini, Mattia Rizzolo

Enrico Zini, Mattia Rizzolo

The source code changes create a field in the database. The string itself, Not a Debian Developer, is not included as a value in the source code. This implies that Zini and Rizzolo are using DBA privileges to bypass the workflow and simply modify records in the database at will.

In any serious IT environment, especially in financial services, using DBA privileges in this manner will get you sacked immediately. In Debian politics, anything goes.

Nonetheless, we have proven the first part of plagiarism: obfuscating the identities of real developers. The first time my name appears in Debian appears to be way back in 1998 in a bug report. The callous manner in which they disappear people is abhorrent.

In an earlier blog, I looked at this from the perspective of modern slavery in Debian. They gave us a promise of recognition in exchange for our contributions. Now they are bouncing the cheques.

The second half of the plagiarism case rests on the misattribution of our work to people who contributed less.

The strongest evidence of this misattribution is the Non-Uploading / Non-Developing Developer scheme. Under the scheme, the cabal can give a Debian Developer title to somebody who did not contribute any code at all. The implication is that these people can include the title Debian Developer when applying to speak at a conference or applying for membership of another group. It is a form of privilege escalation and plagiarism all in one.

The people who obtained these titles are asking to be given the same title and the same respect as those of us who really did author and donate code to the project.

Therefore, this is not a one-on-one case of plagiarism, where one person creates a work and a different person puts their name on it. This is a group plagiarism, where some subset of the authors are obfuscated and at the same time, a group of stooges are invited to take credit for the joint work.

One of the most startling examples is a woman who attended multiple events with the former Debian Project Leader (DPL).

Molly de Blanc, Debian Developer

Here we see Molly de Blanc as president of the Open Source Initiative shortly after getting a Debian Developer title. Chris Lamb, the DPL, had endorsed her for the role of president. This is what privilege escalation looks like.

Molly de Blanc, Chris Lamb, OSI board

Molly de Blanc, Debian Developer

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

One Person's Take on Jef Spaleta, the New Fedora Project Leader
"With a little searching, I wonder what else may be found regarding Microsoft."
LLM Slop Has Virtually Killed unixmen.com and Many Other Sites
There's no longer any incentive to write real articles in there
Taking a Moral Stand Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and the Worst Offenders/Facilitators
Any other stance would sidle with moral depravity or moral hazard
France: Apple and Microsoft Down, GNU/Linux Up to New Record Levels
How will tariffs against France impact things in the coming months?
 
In Iraq, Windows 3.1 (Percent)
There's also zero
Links 06/04/2025: Flood, Cool Gemini Capsule, and Long Form
Links for the day
Links 06/04/2025: Science, Politics, and Pricier Goods
Links for the day
Sharp Declines for Microsoft Windows in Bangladesh (Pop. ~175,000,000), Big Gains for GNU/Linux
Microsoft Windows has been having a really hard time in poor countries
Links 06/04/2025: Fake Reviews, Privatisation Heists, and "AI" as Smokescreen for Impoverishing Humans
Links for the day
Links 06/04/2025: Many New Acts of Repression and Elements of Financial Depression
Links for the day
In Qatar GNU/Linux Rose From Under 1% to Over 4% in Two Years (or Over 5% If Counting ChromeOS)
It's a big improvement compared to what we saw last year
LLM Scrapers Are a Nuisance, But They're Also a Reminder It's Time to Make Your Site Static
Perhaps the best protection is the ability to endure surges
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 05, 2025
Links 06/04/2025: Attacks on Education, Fake Patents, and Fake (Illegal) Patent Courts
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: What Was Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
We hope to finish this whole lot within a week, then move on to election, lobbying etc.
Links 05/04/2025: Tariffs Backfiring, YouTuber Arrested, X/Twitter Set to be Fined
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Offline is For Everyone, Copyright Colonialism, and More
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: TikTok Unsold (Still), Royal Society is Dead
Links for the day
Techrights Will Spend the Next Few Years Writing a Lot About Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
It's a growing problem
The State of EPO Staff's Health in Rijswijk or The Hague
We're going to cover the EPO some more later in the month
NVIDIA Corp Lost 36% of Its "Value" Since Cheeto Inauguration, But "Gen Hey Hi" (GenAI) is Totally Not a Bubble
Selling loads of unneeded hardware based on hysterical hype; like selling shovels during a Gold Rush
GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia, Windows by Default No More?
GNU/Linux is now on the shelf
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025