4 ms·
Some old software had BSD license with clause 'do not use for evil'. It was useless for corporate use. 'Evil' has different meaning for each individual and is
by jankotek 9y ago
Some old software had BSD license with clause 'do not use for evil'. It was useless for corporate use. 'Evil' has different meaning for each individual and is impossible to define.
- Flimm 9y agojslint famously had such a clause and caused problems for lots of FLOSS distros like Debian. Please don't include such a clause, it only punishes careful people.
- detaro 9y agoThis was the case for JSON and JSLint, with a clause of "This Software shall be used for Good, not Evil". Famously, IBM requested (and got) an exception from this.
- philbarr 9y agoJust in case anyone else hadn't heard of that and wants to look it up: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5138866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5138866
- martin-adams 9y agoYep, the exception was in the form of: “I give permission for IBM, its customers, partners, and minions, to use JSLint for evil.” IBM's response: “Thanks very much, Douglas!”