Microsoft opens a "high priority" bug ticket in ffmpeg, attempting to leech the free labour of the maintainers - eviltoast

Microsoft employee:

Hi, This is a high priority ticket and the FFmpeg version is currently used in a highly visible product in Microsoft. We have customers experience issues with Caption during Teams Live Event. Please help

Maintainer’s comment on twitter:

After politely requesting a support contract from Microsoft for long term maintenance, they offered a one-time payment of a few thousand dollars instead.

This is unacceptable.

And further:

The lesson from the xz fiasco is that investments in maintenance and sustainability are unsexy and probably won’t get a middle manager their promotion but pay off a thousandfold over many years.

But try selling that to a bean counter

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
    75·
    8 months ago

    Ok, this time I read the full ticket, so ….

    • They used the software in compliance with provided license
    • opened a bug report on the provided system
    • cooperate with the maintainer to diagnose
    • then when it was user error, they asked where they should have found the doc?
    • then some asshole pasted a huge graphic in the bug report demanding money

    I love to hate on Microsoft too, but I only see one asshole here

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
      2·
      8 months ago

      The point is that a multi billion dollar company, known for squashing and sabotaging open source projects, wants a bug fixed quickly. The open source software that they make big money from has an issue and they COULD just sponsor it, get a support contract, whatever, but instead they want priority because reasons?

      If it was a random user, then whatever. The entire point is that this is not a simple random user.