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Agree no one should be compelled to sell software to Russia, but the topic at hand is the dangers of normalizing national restrictions in open source licensing.

by crmd 5y ago

Agree no one should be compelled to sell software to Russia, but the topic at hand is the dangers of normalizing national restrictions in open source licensing. Would you be comfortable with an open source license that bans Jewish users because of the Palestinian conflict?

dragonwriter 5y ago
> Would you be comfortable with an open source license that bans Jewish users because of the Palestinian conflict? Wouldn't “Israeli” be the more appropriate analog here?
- crmd 5y ago
  I avoid online discussions about Israel, but I often hear activists state that American Jewish people are complicit in the Palestinian Conflict if their congregations provide economic support to “Zionist causes” such as birthright and financial aid to North African diaspora. My position is that it’s in the best interest of free software to allow free software to be used by anyone, even people who you hate or disagree with.
jacobr1 5y ago
I think the resolution of the terraform-aws-eks example that started this discussion is a good one. The maintainer clearly stated his political in the README, but left the license alone without a country specific restriction. This is what I meant by separation between the speech, and commercial or OSS distribution. > Would you be comfortable with an open source license that bans Jewish users because of the Palestinian conflict? Comfortable is a loaded term here. No I wouldn't, but I could break that down to: Is it something that a maintainer should ... * legally be able to do - YES * consider likely to make a difference in the conflict - NO * consider to be good for the OSS ecosystem - NO * consider ethically wise - NO * still consider an OSS license - NO, but I think one could be constructed that had more generic restrictions against human rights abuses, or use by militaries, or similar general restriction. Would that meet OSI definitions? Not sure I care, but I wouldn't be too concerned even I think it would be better to keep things simple. It is worth noting that OSS distributed from the US as part of sale, still is subject to EAR. While we benefit from having a global community of OSS, local laws still apply in any number of circumstances.

by crmd 5y ago

dragonwriter 5y ago

> Would you be comfortable with an open source license that bans Jewish users because of the Palestinian conflict? Wouldn't “Israeli” be the more appropriate analog here?

crmd 5y ago
I avoid online discussions about Israel, but I often hear activists state that American Jewish people are complicit in the Palestinian Conflict if their congregations provide economic support to “Zionist causes” such as birthright and financial aid to North African diaspora. My position is that it’s in the best interest of free software to allow free software to be used by anyone, even people who you hate or disagree with.

jacobr1 5y ago

I think the resolution of the terraform-aws-eks example that started this discussion is a good one. The maintainer clearly stated his political in the README, but left the license alone without a country specific restriction. This is what I meant by separation between the speech, and commercial or OSS distribution. > Would you be comfortable with an open source license that bans Jewish users because of the Palestinian conflict? Comfortable is a loaded term here. No I wouldn't, but I could break that down to: Is it something that a maintainer should ... * legally be able to do - YES * consider likely to make a difference in the conflict - NO * consider to be good for the OSS ecosystem - NO * consider ethically wise - NO * still consider an OSS license - NO, but I think one could be constructed that had more generic restrictions against human rights abuses, or use by militaries, or similar general restriction. Would that meet OSI definitions? Not sure I care, but I wouldn't be too concerned even I think it would be better to keep things simple. It is worth noting that OSS distributed from the US as part of sale, still is subject to EAR. While we benefit from having a global community of OSS, local laws still apply in any number of circumstances.