Akhtyam Sakaev from Yandex proposed a change to be included in the Java library Reactor. The change involved adding the “Unfold” method to the FLUX object for generating sequences in the style of Scala and Haskell. Despite the simplicity of the code, the Reactor project declined to accept the change due to legal reasons.
The Reactor library is developed by the Spring project, controlled by VMware. Michael Minella, the development director of the open project Spring at Broadcom, explained that Broadcom must adhere to US export restrictions and cannot accept changes from sources in Russia.
Other developers questioned what constitutes “sources from Russia” and why the Spring project implements such a ban. It is mentioned that this decision goes against the principle that participation in development should be open to all, regardless of nationality, race, social status, identity, experience, or education. Furthermore, it is noted that the rejected pull request falls under the category of changes taken for import, so it is unclear how it is restricted by export regulations.