Gnutella licence shuts out military
 

Open Sauce is about not killing people

THE LATEST licence for the Gnutella client, GPU, has forbidden the use of the code by the military.


GPU is a Gnutella client that links PCs together to create supercomputers, is now being released under a "no military use" modified version of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

The lead developers Tiziano Mengotti and Rene Tegel have been reading their Isaac Asimov and have decided to give their code the equivalent of the three laws of robotics. They say that "the program and its derivative work will neither be modified nor executed to harm any human being nor through inaction permit any human being to be harmed."

Mengotti says open source is used by the military to steer warplanes and rockets. His version of the licence should make it clear to users of the software that killing people is out of bounds.

Mengotti knows that this contradicts the original intention of the GPL and while his views have some sympathy among Open Sorcerers most of them fear this could create problems in the long run. More here.