restricting the use of open source software

[Anderson, Kelly]

Software doesn't kill people, people do. And besides, if you ban
software only criminals will have software... :-)



-Kelly

-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Moffitt [mailto:nick at zork.net] 
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 8:57 AM
To: license-discuss at opensource.org
Subject: Re: restricting the use of open source software

Second, all that you gain by putting this sort of clause in a license
text is the right to open anotehr in a series of legal cases for
whatever lawbreaker you're worried about.  If you have a "must not use
to rob banks" clause, and it comes up in a trial that Machine-Gun Kelly
ran your code as part of a heist, all you get is the right to try and
open a civil suit against him for license violation.  You'd either be
stuck on a long waiting list of petty-crime "me toos", or you'd actually
delay the serving of Kelly's criminal sentence with your goofy copyright
claims.

So in closing: 
	1) Not everyone needs to be bound by your particular laws.  
	2) You don't even gain anything worthwhile by re-enforcing
	    these laws in your software license.






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