[License-discuss] Thoughts on the subject of ethical licenses

[Russell McOrmond]

On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 8:41 PM Josh Berkus <josh at berkus.org> wrote:

> I'm disappointed in the discussion too, but in my case because it
> focused entirely on historical baggage and didn't ever really discuss
> the merits of ethical clauses (or lack thereof).
>


This is exactly what I and others have been posting.

I was posting why I, as a person who is involved in and support FLOSS for
political reasons (call it "ethics" and "human rights") are opposed to the
methods being proposed by the "ethical" clauses.  I am a prime target
audience of such a movement, and yet I strongly disagree with the specifics.


* I believe that the method they wish to use (strongly enforced
copyright and patent laws) is contrary to their stated goals (the "ethical"
creation and use of software).
* The use of the term "ethics" in the title, and claiming that "human
rights" is a universally agreed upon concept, will always have the impact
of gaslighting and dividing communities.
* That many of us who are involved in or support the global appropriate
technology movement, and other global human rights supportive work, support
the global FLOSS movement on what we consider to be "ethical" grounds as
the traditional definitions of FLOSS are compatible with those goals.


I discuss history not to discuss baggage, but to explain why I as someone
who has been a long-time social and political activist support the
traditional goals of Free Software and Open Source Software.

Many other people also replied to explain why they thought the "ethical
clauses" were unworkable, more often from a less political perspective.  I
offered myself as someone who you might think would be supportive of
"ethical clauses" as I'm very concerned with ethics around the creation and
use of software and other technology, but believe the stated methods are
counterproductive to their stated goals.

To use their language, I believe that "software freedom must always be in
service of human freedom", but believe the methods that group has chosen
are contradictory to that goal.

-- 
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>

"The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or portable
media player from my cold dead hands!" http://c11.ca/own
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