Antiwar License

Rick Moen rick at linuxmafia.com
Mon Mar 3 02:29:34 UTC 2003


Quoting Sergey Goldgaber (sgoldgaber at yahoo.com):

> Along similar lines, wouldn't it be possible to create a license
> prohibiting the use of one's software by the military, the Defense
> Department, and military contractors?

If your question is whether it's possible to write an OSI-approved
licence of that sort (and thus to qualify covered software for the "OSI
Certified" certification mark), I would say it isn't, as that would 
clearly violate OSD provision 5 (No Discrimination Against Persons or
Groups) and provision 6 (No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor).

If you're asking whether it's possible to write a licence that's not
OSD-compliant (i.e., _not_ open source), then I have no comment.

-- 
Cheers,            There are only 10 types of people in this world -- 
Rick Moen          those who understand binary arithmetic and those who don't.
rick at linuxmafia.com
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