this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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Closed licenses are arguably better for certain left projects, particularly self-contained ones. You can use bourgeois legal nonsense to stop corpos from using your work.
I've seen anti-war people write open source code that ended up getting used to help fly war drones.
What about licenses that restrict the software from being used in a certain way? I think I've heard of at least one open-source license that disallows the software from being used in the military industry.
A license that has restrictions like that doesn't meet the criteria to call itself "open source."
Free/libre software is not the same as open source, but I agree that it is difficult to enforce prohibitions with source available.
No, I mean that item number 6 of the Open Source Definition specifically states you cannot restrict the use of the software for any particular field or endeavor. That includes use in military applications.
If you have restrictions like that in your license, it's not open source.