[License-discuss] Ethical open source licensing - Dual Licensing for Justice

[Robby O'Connor]

Your licenses will fall apart on legal scrutiny. That's the issue, your
licenses will not stop the humans rights violations you're trying to
stop. They simply won't. Why? because you're not using frameworks to
prevent such use with the backing of international law.

On 3/6/20 4:47 PM, Coraline Ada Ehmke wrote:
>
>> On Mar 6, 2020, at 11:04 AM, Russell Nelson <nelson at crynwr.com> wrote:
>>
>> I do NOT like the idea of ethical open source. It completely turns the idea of "forking without permission" into "you can only run this software if I think you are a good person.”
>
> I see statements like this being thrown around so often, and I’m really sick of it being repeated with exactly ZERO backing evidence. It is a slippery slope fallacy with no basis in reality. 
>
> No ethical source license that I am aware of allows a licensor to discriminate against anyone for “not being a nice person”, not being likeable, or any other arbitrary and subjective criteria. 
>
> The Hippocratic License, for example, does not discriminate against any person or group, nor against any field of endeavor. It simply states that the software may not be used in the commission of human rights violations. This is not a liberal vs conservative position; it is not a fuzzy grey area that is open to interpretation; it is not open to subjective “armchair” interpretation; it does not rely on a belief system that varies from person to person or place to place. It relies on the collective agreement of representatives from all the nations in the world coming together to establish the very minimum set of freedoms granted to every living human being. 
>
> And in the context of open source, it actually both embodies and strengthens the ideal of software freedom by ensuring that such software freedom is always in service of human freedom (with thanks to Karen Sandler of the Software Freedom Conservancy for that language.)
>
> Ethical source is about exploring ways to empower creators to fulfill their greater-than-average moral and ethical responsibilities to their industry and human society at large. It rejects the notion of technology as a neutral tool. There is plenty of research into how software encodes, enforces, and promotes bias against marginalized communities, is abused by governments around the world, and works against social progress. I encourage you to do some googling on the topic.
>
> If such a license exists that states “you can only run this software if I think you are a good person”, prove me wrong by sharing it.
>
> Respectfully,
> Coraline Ada Ehmke
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> License-discuss mailing list
> License-discuss at lists.opensource.org
> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org