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[Avatar] [info]dannipenguin
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svu, you raise an interesting point and while I feel that the only military a country should need is a defence force, the military still remains a vast source of money for blue-sky research. In pursuit of finding increasingly more efficient ways to kill each other, they have come up with some quite clever technology (the Internet, for example). Currently it's robotic cars!

So, all in all, I think it's more important to let your Government know that you don't want your military waging wars, rather than trying to say what software they can and can't use (because they can always find more software somewhere else).
Posted 21/12/06 23:23 — 3 comments

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From:(Anonymous)
Date:2006-12-21 17:42 (UTC)

Don't use GPL then.

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Don't use GPL. Pretty simple.
From:(Anonymous)
Date:2006-12-21 18:49 (UTC)

Re: Don't use GPL then.

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Exactly. The GPL is meant to guarantee freedom to everyone including people you may not like. I think its very hypocritical of free software advocates to want restrictions like this. I don't like axe murderers, but that doesn't mean I have the right to prevent them from using my software.

Face it, if you're looking to restrict who can use you're software, then you aren't writing free software.

Michael Schurter
From:[info]ataxi
Date:2006-12-22 01:54 (UTC)

Re: Don't use GPL then.

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Yes, and it's only a matter of time before restricting access by "military" organisations (where do you draw the line by the way? Oh, can't work it out? What a surprise) turns into restricting access by "terrorist" organisations or "right-wing" organisations or something even more nebulous.

In any case, if your software is immensely useful to the military they'll just use it anyway as soon as the stakes get high enough. What's the plan, to sue them after they've used your code to commit gigadeathcrime? If you're writing software that might be used for purposes you consider immoral, you must take some degree of moral responsibility. Especially if you plan to release the source code, under any license whatsoever.
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