
Ask HN: What will happen if I request Facebook not use my OpenSource software? - blahblahblah01
I would like to release some OpenSource projects. But I don&#x27;t want it to be used for evil. This includes companies that help ICE, companies like Facebook that enabled Cambridge Analytica etc.<p>I know there is no legal way through licensing since OpenSource license gives them all the rights. But what if I say in the README that the software cannot be used for evil. Specifically call out that Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Palantir etc cannot use my software.<p>Obviously I will be blacklisted by those companies to never hire me, which is fine by me. But what else am I missing? Will there be other consequences?
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mindcrime
_I would like to release some OpenSource projects. But I don 't want it to be
used for evil._

I understand, and share, your sentiment. But really, once you put code out
there, you can never know who's using it, what they're using it for, and
whether or not they would respect your license terms. I mean, if the NSA find
your software useful for something, do you _really_ think they're going to
skip using it because your license says they can't? Or what about the North
Korean government, or the Russian mafia, etc. Criminals / terrorists / nation-
state governments / etc. are probably a much larger source of evil-doing than
a handful of corporations, and none of those entities are likely to care about
a software license.

Personally, I'd go for just using whatever normal F/OSS license you'd
otherwise pick, and in the README just add a note saying "I'm asking nicely
that you please not use this software for evil purposes". It has no real legal
effect, but, as noted above, having it in the license really doesn't help a
whole lot anyway. And you still make your position clear this way.

What you probably need to ask yourself is "on balance, is me releasing this
software going to make the world a better place, or a worse places". If the
answer is the former, I'd encourage you to just do it.

~~~
eesmith
I think the viewpoint is not "do you really think they're going to skip using
it" but rather a desire to not implicitly condone its use for evil.

Back to the topic, the graph isomorphism program "nauty" _had_ such a license.
[http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/nauty/COPYRIGHT.txt](http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/nauty/COPYRIGHT.txt)
says:

> Earlier (pre-2.6) versions of this package carried a different notice:
> "Permission is hereby given for use and/or distribution with the exception
> of sale for profit or application with nontrivial military significance."
> These days most people use nauty via a larger package such as Magma, Sage,
> or GAP, and often they don't even know they are using nauty. Due to the
> legal nonsense that large package distributors need to worry about, it has
> proved too much trouble to maintain an idiosyncratic licence. I didn't
> change my opinion about military use, but it is no longer part of the formal
> notice. Brendan McKay (Jan 20, 2016)

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karmakaze
There are examples of this. Lerna revokes licence to companies working with
ICE[0].

RedisLabs moves to Apache 2.0 modified with Commons Clause for their
modules[1] to exclude cloud vendors who don't contribute back to open source.
Note Redis itself is still BSD licensed.

[0] [https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xbynx/major-
open...](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xbynx/major-open-source-
project-revokes-access-to-companies-that-work-with-ice)

[1][https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17814386](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17814386)

------
wmf
You can put "don't be evil" in the license, but it just isn't Open Source™.
Probably no one will ever use or contribute to your software, but that's up to
you.

~~~
eesmith
While true, that's because "Probably no one will ever use or contribute to
your software" even if it is Open Source™.

The nauty graph isomorphism program is an example of non-Open Source™ (it did
not allow use in projects "with nontrivial military significance") which did
see wide use, in applications like Magma, Sage, and GAP.

------
jki275
You don't really want to release open source software. You kind of have to
choose, freedom works both ways.

