--- David Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Monday 03 March 2003 12:10 am, Nathan Kelley wrote: > > > A license such as this would go against the latter turnaround in > > perception, and help to reinforce the former stereotypes: > "Excellent > > developers, but do we need to listen another student protest?" > > Let me add my "amen" to that. Software distribution (with one > exception) is not a place to forward a social agenda. The one > exception is for social agendas that directly relate to software > distribution. I may not always agree with the screed attached to > the GPL, but I can't argue with its applicability to the subject at > hand. > > Military related activities are completely unrelated to the domain > of software distribution. Keep them separate.
I will agree that this list in particular is not the place for political discussions. However, I do believe that computer science in general, and open source development in particular (as is evidenced by the latest Army Linux fiasco) should take a long, hard look at the ethical implications of what they are doing. Of course it is more comfortable to pretend you are still in the womb surrounded by safe abstractions but in the real world, like it or not, your actions have consequences. The military application of open source technology (your work) to kill living, breathing, real people is but one warning sign. Computer scientists and engineers should not make the mistake of the pre-atomic bomb physicists in believing that their work could stay divorced from messy, uncofortable realities. Their mistake was made clear to them and to the world in a very graphic and tragic manner. I hope it does not take a similar or worse event to wake our community up. --Sergey PS: I invite anyone interested in continuing this discussion join me off-list at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ossethics/ BTW: I thank everyone for informing me as to the incompatibility of an Antiwar License with the OSD. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3