Comment by distcs | Hacker News Reader

Comment by distcs | Hacker News Reader

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Even if we ignore the open source purists, restricting commercial usage still violates the popular libre software guidelines like FSD and DFSG:

* https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html#fs-definition - FSD

* https://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines - DFSG

It violates freedom 0 of FSD!

The problem with that is that a lot of non-profit organizations that do use libre software cannot use your software because it violates one of the fundamental requirements of libre software guidelines: No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor / The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0). So such software become automatically disqualified for non-profits that want to run themselves on libre software.

I know it is your software and you are totally entitled to release it under any license you want and make money off it. Nothing wrong with it. But I'm hoping you can see why this is a problem for those who want to use libre software who are also entitled to ignore your software and keep looking for something that is actually libre.

> It violates freedom 0 of FSD!

yes, I understand that. the "noncommercial" in the license URL is a pretty big sign that "any purpose" is not allowed.

> The problem with that is that a lot of non-profit organizations that do use libre software cannot use your software because it violates one of the fundamental requirements of libre software guidelines

this doesn't make logical sense. non-profits are not commercial, so they are allowed usage, both in the license terms and by me now, saying explicitly, that I am allowing that usage of my software. if THEY CHOOSE to restrict themselves by requiring "pure" open source software only, thats THEIR fault, not mine.

> if THEY CHOOSE to restrict themselves by requiring "pure" open source software only, thats THEIR fault, not mine.

It is nobody's fault. Just like nobody can force you to choose a "pure" open source license, nobody can force them to use your software. Just like you have the prerogative to choose whatever license you want, they have the prerogative to choose "pure" libre software. It's all fair and well and nobody is at fault for exercising their choices.

Most of the time though, the non-profits go for "pure" libre software because their legal team has already provided a blanket approval for all libre licenses. So it is less hassle for them to choose libre software available under these licenses. Choosing a noncommercial license would be more procedural hassle for them in terms of reviews, approvals, etc. Yeah it may sound stupid to not use otherwise perfectly good software due to a legal and procedural technicality, but I'm just saying how things are and not necessarily how things should be.

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