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Ask HN: Is it legal for a software license to have terms based on race and sex?

23 点作者 proveanegative将近 10 年前
The license that prompts me to ask this question is http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nonwhiteheterosexualmalelicense.org&#x2F;. I found out about it through this HN story: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=9862362. At least one project appears to use it seriously rather than as a troll.<p>Could you run into legal trouble by having software with this license at work or sharing it with your coworkers?

11 条评论

matteotom将近 10 年前
It seems that it would be rather trivial to circumvent this:<p>1. Ask a friend who is not {male,white,hetero} to fork it on github<p>2. They make a small change<p>3. They change the license from this to MIT&#x2F;BSD&#x2F;GPL&#x2F;whatever<p>Regardless of the legal status of the license, it only (ostensibly) has any effect on straight, white males who know only straight, white males.<p>(Also I find it mildly disapointing that it makes no mention of trans people, as a straight white trans man would also be &quot;excluded&quot; by this license)
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KaiserPro将近 10 年前
In the UK at least, you are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of colour, creed or sexual preference.<p>However one must demonstrate that said party has been disadvantaged.<p>For example if you say that women must use red font, and men must use blue. It is arguable that you are choosing a different <i>path</i> for each gender, but not causing more work for either side.<p>in the case of the nonwhite<i>etcetcetc</i> license, you are allowing one group to potentially profit more from derivative works than the other. (one group is allowed to represent the work as their own, potentially allowing greater profits.)<p>However you&#x27;ll have to prove it, which requires examples, or brilliant lawyers.<p>##Supplemental##<p>My personal feeling is that any discrimination, that is the deliberate act of choosing one type of person over an other, on the grounds of anything other talent for the position in question is wrong.<p>Having been parachuted into a position, not because of talent, but because of social engineering, allowed my peers to legitimately mark me out as not belonging. Ultimately did nothing to tackle the root cause, and possible re-enforced on both sides that someone like me is not meant to be in that position.<p>Social hacks are just that, nasty. tackle the cause not the symptom.
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fiatmoney将近 10 年前
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Shelley_v._Kraemer" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Shelley_v._Kraemer</a><p>Strongly implies such a license is unenforceable.
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bradleyjg将近 10 年前
Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948) was a Supreme Court case that held that racially restrictive covenants (i.e. deed provisions that forbid transferring the property to a black person) were unenforceable as a matter of constitutional law. Similar logic would probably apply here.
proveanegative将近 10 年前
Clickable links:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nonwhiteheterosexualmalelicense.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nonwhiteheterosexualmalelicense.org&#x2F;</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=9862362" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=9862362</a>
caseysoftware将近 10 年前
A license is simply a contract establishing the rules under which you can use, modify, distribute, etc so logically, it seems like you could put whatever terms you wanted. The Beerware license comes to mind in this regard - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Beerware" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Beerware</a><p>Of course, since the non-white-hetero-etc license adds extra requirements beyond those in the GPL, it will not be accepted by the FSF as GPL-compatible. The Beerware license isn&#x27;t either.<p>But what it really comes down to is enforcement. To fight misuse legally, you&#x27;d need a) a lawyer that&#x27;d take the case and b) a judge not to laugh you out of the room. But the Twitter mobs may be the preferred form of enforcement here anyway.<p>In a professional atmosphere, more and more companies have pre-approved licenses that are okay by default. By going with something non-standard, it means you&#x27;ll need to get special permission which usually means legal review. I&#x27;d wager that most lawyers would discourage you from using this one.. just because it is ambiguous in enforcement, etc.<p>Further, if you tried to enforce this one within your company, someone would have to ask each of your employees their ethnicity and sexual orientation.. which opens up some HR issues. Imagine your boss saying &quot;don&#x27;t worry about this, you&#x27;re gay so you can use it.&quot;
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amelius将近 10 年前
On a related note, I find it rather awkward that software, and online services are allowed to discriminate by applying automated classifiers to datasets.<p>For instance, an insurance company could deduce from the fact that a person likes black music, that he is 2x more likely to be involved in an incident of some kind.<p>To me, it seems that this is a form of prejudice and discrimination, that, in real life, would not be accepted. So why do we accept it from these big companies?<p>And here comes the main point: this should apply even if &quot;black music&quot; is replaced by some trait that doesn&#x27;t touch upon racism, and the company is not an insurance company but, for instance, an advertisement agency.
meira将近 10 年前
Well, basically, the license is open source for &quot;minorities&quot;, free software to white hetero male. Which is better? :)
brudgers将近 10 年前
<i>Could you run into legal trouble</i><p>Talk to an attorney. Since laws vary, a local attorney is probably a good choice.
ivanhoe将近 10 年前
How exactly is this different than putting a &quot;Juden Verboten&quot; or &quot;Whites Only&quot; sign on a shop?
jeb_douche将近 10 年前
The real questions are how white, hetero and male are defined ? Is white defined using the pantone matching system, etc.