[hackerspaces] will the fruits of our labors be used for good or for evil?

[Justis Peters]

On 11/30/2011 12:35 AM, Volatile Compound wrote:
> Nor does it matter: the hackerspace has no control over any funded 
> project once it's out the door.  Notice the amount of code developed 
> under the GPL, BSD, and other licences that governments (including 
> their defence agencies) use?  It's quite a lot, and whether or not the 
> person who wrote that code under its respective licence wished for it 
> to be used in those applications or not doesn't matter.
As long as you retain the copyright, you have many options in how you 
license it. You can even issue different licenses to different parties:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-licensing

You also can modify most licenses, including the "copyleft" ones, to 
prohibit specific uses. I don't think it can be enforced, but it might 
be enough to stop a bureaucracy from using it for a while. Also, some 
consider this option to no longer be "free software" (the free as in 
speech part). See discussion here:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/hessla.html

While I'm still curious about the options here, I am definitely leaning 
toward the sentiment that Matt Joyce expressed earlier tonight:

    "At some point you need to make a choice to believe in the
    fundamental decency of mankind or to give up on ever believing the
    world can be a better place without destroying itself in the process.

    I say we bet it all on us being awesome.  Cause hell...   we are."

:D

Kind regards,
Justis

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