HACKER Q&A
📣 tastyface

Source-available license with political stipulations?


Hi HN! I have friends in a country that has an ascendant religious-regressive party that threatens to strip away their rights, if not their freedom altogether. They feel like they’re at the end of their rope. There is no practical way for them to resist electorally anymore, but they’d like to throw as big a wrench in the works as they are able with the limited power that they have. I realize this no longer qualifies as open source or free software; but is there a license in use today that has political stipulations, e.g. financial supporters of X are prohibited from using this software? Thanks.

Similar past (unsuccessful) discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13250450

By the way, I do not wish to turn this question into a political flame war. I also don’t think it’s unprecedented: some of the more popular licenses in use today are specifically intended as political wedges (GPL). And see also the JSON “use for good, not for evil” license.

On a more personal note, I’d like to use a similar license that prohibits military or military-adjacent use.

  👤 codingdave Accepted Answer ✓
You can put whatever you want in a license. You don't have to use the boilerplate licenses. Take one you like, tack on your additional requirements at the end, and you're all good.

Enforcing it would be a challenge.

👤 pavel_lishin
> an ascendant religious-regressive party that threatens to strip away their rights, if not their freedom altogether.

Wouldn't this party also control the courts? How would you enforce such a license, in an environment like that?

👤 tonetegeatinst
To answer your question:

You can tweak a existing license to fit your goals. The issue is if it is not widely adopted then it will be a largely uphill battle to enforce said license, and the longer a legal fight the costlier it becomes.

To answer your question: certain software prohibits use for "military technology" which is one of the vaguest term iv seen. You also have license's that prohibit use in a commercial setting etc.

As for a license that prohibits certain users, that's more complex. The WordPress drama which had a button added blocking a specific group did happen, but a judge blocked that action. You probably need any "click to confirm you are not X or don't support Y at the very beginning of the release and not as an add in later down the road.

The easiest method for blocking certain groups of people would be a web developer banning any country IP that supports GDPR, and includes in the terms of service that you will not use the software if you fall into XYZ category.