
Russia Asks for the Impossible with Its New Surveillance Laws - dwaxe
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/07/russia-asks-impossible-its-new-surveillance-laws
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justsaysmthng
A lot of the software runs on open source libraries and applications.

What if the licenses for said libs and applications (eg. GPL or MIT) added
stipulations, which forbid the usage of the software in certain circumstances
?

For example: "The library should not be used inside applications which provide
backdoors to secret services".

Or

"Not to be used inside weapons or military machines"

Of course this would not necessarily deter the bad guys (governments) , but it
would make these attempts technically illegal, which could then be attacked in
some civil lawsuit ?

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secfirstmd
We actually thought about this with Umbrella App. "If used by a company
involved in mass surveillance you agree to pay us 1 billion dollars etc." I
don't think it's impossible but it would mess up the usefulness of the GPL/MIT
system. Of course, the hard part about any GPL/MIT system etc is the
enforcement bit.

~~~
x1798DE
I think most companies would contract for a home built solution rather than
risk bankruptcy, assuming that term was even enforceable.

~~~
secfirstmd
It was a tongue-in-cheek thought. But it would be interesting to know how many
companies of various types regularly break the provisions and spirit of open
source licensing.

------
Grue3
They know perfectly well that it's impossible to follow this law. That way
they can jail whoever they please, because everyone breaks the law.

