

The NSA must rely on a lot of open source software... - od2m
http://daniel.morrione.net/?p=213

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fbe
> Why couldn’t open source licenses be amended to forbid use in surveillance
> devices?

Because otherwise, it would be non-free.

If you look at the Free Software definition (from
[http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-
sw.html](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) ), the first freedom is :
"The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).". "For any
purpose" is really clear, you can't forbid someone to use it in a surveillance
device.

The DFSG (Debian Free Software Guidelines,
[http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines](http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines)
) are even clearer : "No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor - The
license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific
field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being
used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.".

~~~
chris_wot
So in other words, you are totally free to remove the freedom others.

