Ethics (OT) (was Re: Antiwar License)

[David Johnson]

On Monday 03 March 2003 02:02 am, Sergey Goldgaber wrote:

> Of course it is more comfortable to pretend you are
> still in the womb surrounded by safe abstractions but
> in the real world, like it or not, your actions have
> consequences.  The military application of open source
> technology (your work) to kill living, breathing, real
> people is but one warning sign.

The only reason that you are able to demand certain social attitudes in 
your software licenses is because as the author of the software you get 
to make the rules that govern its distribution. IMHO, you are abusing 
your power as the author in doing this.

And the current pending war is hardly the only issue that people are 
concerned about. Consider the state that software would be in if every 
possible issue were raised in a license. No one would be sure if they 
were entitled to use a piece of software without first figuring out if 
they met the requirements pertaining to several hundred issues ranging 
from the military to the Israel to abortion to public housing to 
taxation etc etc etc. How many developers have opinions that match 
yours exactly? That's how many pieces of software you will be legally 
allowed to use.

Let's get more practical and just look at the "big" groups that people 
might not want using their software. Let's keep this in terms of broad 
moral principles. Consider government in general. The very concepts of 
legal coercion, extorted taxes and arbitrary regulation are anathema to 
some. Others may ban their software to non-democratic governments. Some 
will ban specific governments based on human rights abuses. Capitalists 
won't want socialist nations using their software, while socialists 
won't want capitalist nations using it. Is your home nation signed on 
to the Kyoto Accords? If not you can't use that software over there. 
The list goes on. Let's ban members of Planned Parenthood or Operation 
Rescue from using our software, your choice as to which. Let's prevent 
members of the MPAA or RIAA or any theaters or artists doing business 
with them from using our software.

Or to focus it in a bit, how far do you want your antiwar license clause 
to go? Will it affect people that are in the military even if the use 
is personal? What about civilians contractors when they go home from 
work? The janitors that mop the floors at the Pentagon? The farmer that 
grows the corn that feeds the soldiers?

This slope is too slippery to start down upon.

-- 
David Johnson
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