Apache and the JSON license

Posted Dec 1, 2016 8:27 UTC (Thu) by marcH (subscriber, #57642)
In reply to: Apache and the JSON license by elw
Parent article: Apache and the JSON license

> What is good and what is evil is simply a matter of perspective.

Yeah, everything's relative. For instance rape feels good to rapists whereas saving lives feels evil to... sorry; I forgot to whom exactly.

Apache and the JSON license

Posted Dec 1, 2016 9:42 UTC (Thu) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link]

Intent matters - saving an unrepentant murderer's (e.g. a professional hitman for the KKK) life specifically so that they can kill again is "saving lives", but could be considered evil.

Apache and the JSON license

Posted Dec 1, 2016 11:23 UTC (Thu) by NAR (subscriber, #1313) [Link] (3 responses)

saving lives feels evil to... sorry; I forgot to whom exactly

My guess is millions of people. Not just those who refuse possibly life saving medical intervention due to religious reasons (i.e. saving life is evil), but those who think saving refugees from drowning is a bad idea.

Apache and the JSON license

Posted Dec 1, 2016 18:18 UTC (Thu) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link] (2 responses)

Wow, serious efforts to miss the point. Let me try again: how many people find it evil to catch and rescue someone accidentally falling off a cliff?

The point is: yes of course the concepts of Good and Evil aren't identical for everyone. This doesn't mean the concepts are completely void and useless; they do have a lot of universality. Pretending the concepts of Good and Evil are meaningless is just as extreme and stupid than pretending they mean the exact same for everyone. The real world is complex but that doesn't mean we can't say anything about it.

Apache and the JSON license

Posted Dec 1, 2016 18:34 UTC (Thu) by tartley (subscriber, #96301) [Link] (1 responses)

Hey marcH. It is true that some (not most) actions can be universally classified as either good or evil. But that's not remotely sufficient. It is necessary that *all* (or the vast majority) of actions can be so classified, unambiguously and trivially, before the action is taken. Otherwise, any one abiding by the terms doesn't know which actions they can or cannot take. If they make a classification error even once, in any of the hundreds of actions they might perform every day, then they are wide open to anybody with a different classification accusing them of breaching the terms.

Apache and the JSON license

Posted Dec 1, 2016 21:31 UTC (Thu) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

I totally agree that such a clause has absolutely nothing to do in a software licence. Sorry for straying off the licence discussion.