3 ms·

Amazing writing. Question, is there any US judicial precedent for what is evil and what is not?

• Vecr 3y ago
  Probably. Most of the US has a legal system based on common law. I think it would really depend on the context though, because I don't know how you can use a linting program "for evil."
  • zoky 3y ago
    Have it lint PHP?
• School-Cotton 3y ago
  No, which is why this license is probably much more restrictive than its author intended. Many serious organizations simply won’t use something for which the meaning of the license terms is unclear to this extent. That of course doesn’t mean they “plan on using it for evil” or anything of the sort.
  • jrflowers 3y ago
    I’d think that it wouldn’t make for a very restrictive license. Since there’s no agreement on what “evil” means whatsoever, it doesn’t seem that different from putting “You can not use this code to hooplebop shanglefronks” Edit: I guess there’s that TV show “Evil”. It would be funny if IBM had that production company as a client.
    • School-Cotton 3y ago
      > there’s no agreement on what “evil” means whatsoever Indeed, which is why lawyers won’t want to take the risk. I’m sure they wouldn’t want to use software whose license claims you can’t “hooblepop shanglefronks” either, for that matter, without discussing with the owner to clarify what that means. Essentially the practical meaning of this license is “this can’t be used by companies with careful lawyers who take license terms seriously”, which I doubt was the intent.
    • whimsicalism 3y ago
      IBM did assist the nazis with the holocaust so