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Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)

evanhahn.com

11–20 of 229 posts

Re: Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)

#11
Open source is a gift you’re giving.

Companies take that gift and use it to provide a service for cheaper than it would otherwise be if they had to build it all themselves.

You are already benefiting from open source - but it is a tiny benefit and subtle and very indirect and very diffuse.

Licensing is thorny but it’s personal choice too.. would you use a project whose license is “use it for now unless or until I decide you’re evil at my discretion”.. probably not. Probably, someone else would get the users you have now, and the corresponding popularity.

It is a tough choice, but it’s a lovely and important thing you’re doing when you provide the gift of open source software.

Re: Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)

#13
post #9

This is already explored - use source available instead of open source.

Presumably they want to keep the project liberally licensed modulo the "no evil" part. A source-available license would probably be too restrictive for that purpose unless it is somehow made compatible with open/free licenses. But I am not a lawyer, so I have no fucking idea what I'm talking about.

Re: Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)

#14
Free software is about freedom. Restricting it from anyone means it's not free. There is no requirement that we must create free software but if it's called free I think it should always have the basic qualities of freedom; not only when it fits our purposes and our values.

Re: Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)

#15

Open source is a gift you’re giving. Companies take that gift and use it to provide a service for cheaper than it would otherwise be if they had to build it all themselves. You are already benefiting from open source - but it is a tiny benefit and subtle and very indirect and very diffuse. Licensing is thorny but it’s personal choice too.. would you use a project whose license is “use it for now unless or until I dec…

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Re: Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)

#16

"No man is wise enough to know all the evil that he does." -Rochefoucald

I don't know if you're just joking but this is the crux of the problem and what they are asking for has deep implications. If somebody can thoroughly define evil in a software license, please publish it for review so that we can learn from it.

Re: Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)

#17

Open source is a gift you’re giving. Companies take that gift and use it to provide a service for cheaper than it would otherwise be if they had to build it all themselves. You are already benefiting from open source - but it is a tiny benefit and subtle and very indirect and very diffuse. Licensing is thorny but it’s personal choice too.. would you use a project whose license is “use it for now unless or until I dec…

[flagged]

Cheaper for the company. Whether they pass those savings on to their customers is another matter.

Re: Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)

#18
On what license to choose, this talk by Adam Jacob is good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmhYHzJpkuo

And if you want to read about open source vs source available, this GitHub with the Red Hat lawyer and co-author of GPLv2 provides a TLDR of the sentiment. The reference from Chad gives a deep dive into the discussion and origin of FSL’s language.

https://github.com/liquibase/liquibase/issues/7374

Re: Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)

#20

Free software is about freedom. Restricting it from anyone means it's not free. There is no requirement that we must create free software but if it's called free I think it should always have the basic qualities of freedom; not only when it fits our purposes and our values.

> shift the default in open source from “it’s free for anyone to use” to “please don’t use this if you’re evil”

Point the author makes is precisely that they don't want to do free software, and they'd like to convince you not to do free software

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