[License-discuss] For Public Comment: The Libre Source License

[Moritz Maxeiner]

On Wednesday, 21 August 2019 22:07:28 CEST Michael Downey wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> On Wed, Aug 21, 2019, at 12:22, Howard Chu wrote:
> > Article 27:
> > (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life
> > of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific
> > advancement and its benefits.
> > (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material
> > interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic
> > production of which he is
> > the author.
> 
> Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was mentioned, I thought it
> would be an important reminder that FLOSS software is often used by
> marginalized groups in humanitarian relief contexts who are under threat of
> political and other violence. I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that
> requiring those folks to publicly disclose their use of the software (via
> forced disclosure of private modifications) could put their safety in
> jeopardy.

That's a good point and I don't believe a license restricting private 
modifications would be a good fit for every type of software. 
I just think there are some sensible use cases, such as compilers, 
cryptography libraries, etc, where I don't think this is very likely to apply 
(though naturally every initial author would need to consider that for 
themselves in their particular case).

> 
> Yes, as the creator of a work, you could certainly put any kinds of
> restrictions you like on others' use of your work. But it seems contrary to
> the OSD, and in $dayjob we certainly wouldn't encourage those restrictions
> on any type of globally-beneficial FLOSS public good that could be used in
> the contexts I describe above.

I think it's important to distinguish between use of the software and creation 
of private derivative works. I've no interest in any restriction of the 
former.

> 
> Appreciate the fascinating discussion.
> 
> Michael Downey
> DIAL Open Source Center
> United Nations Foundation
> 
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