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Comment by throwaway91111 | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps i'm missing something, but who cares if Musto even blatantly lied about his credentials? It's not relevant to the project, except in terms of his credibility, and hopefully there are better guards against fraud than checking resumes.

Caring about academic credentials in a non-academic (or otherwise certified) field seems exhausting, pointless, and only bolsters the military-industrial-academic complex.

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Doghunter labs received funding from the University of Messina in part because Musto claimed IBM, Olivetti, an MIT doctorate and an NYU masters on his resume. This is fraud under Italian law, and now Musto -- and by extension Doghunter labs and now Arduino -- may face criminal and civil penalties.

Musto is, simply, a liability to Arduino. Yet under last September's agreement, he controls 51% of the organization.

Contextualizing that, Arduino is by far the most successful Open Hardware effort ever. Allowing Musto to continue his influence over Arduino casts a shadow over the entire Open Hardware movement.

Calling Arduino "open hardware" is a bit of a stretch. That's like calling Windows an "open source" because you can create and run your own programs on it.

In addition to the aforementioned fraud, I think it's also about the fact that this was a lie, not necessarily that it's about the lack of credentials.

Most people do not like being lied to.

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