He did something much worse than break a contract, he committed a crime that he could probably be prosecuted for. He did the whole thing with malice aforethought. It looks like fraud at the very minimum - he released a version with the intent to deceive, victims relied on his deception, and they suffered damages as a consequence.
Fraud requires that he used deception (I don't see any evidence that he did) to obtain something of value (again, I don't see it).
The code was open source. The code was published under a new major version number. The code had a descriptive change log that definitely didn't seem congruent with earlier versions. And he wasn't getting paid for it. What thing of value did Marak Squires defraud people of?
I get the sense that people are reacting with extreme hyperbole in their accusations, out of anger that he did something assholish.
Serious question: how is this different from 1Password publishing an upgrade that removes the ability to use standalone vaults in the iOS Safari extension?
At the end of the day, Marak published an update, knowing some people would update the software automatically due to their own workflows, and the update had negative effects on the users. Companies do this all the time and nobody accuses them of installing a "Trojan Horse" or committing a felony.
How did it come to this? Where HN, a place that is supposed to be genuine and curious, believes an act should be acquiesced to or branded a felony based on the individual's personality? Because that seems to be the consensus here and I find it disturbing.
