This is a fascinating idea, to be quite honest. Exploring the idea that humanity tends to devour itself has always been quite interesting, and now I get to write about it. The inspiration came to me after I talked to an 84-year-old gentleman in the subway, and we exchanged some philosophical views.

Introduction

Coraline Ada Ehmke. As a free software activist, this name only means one thing: Trouble. But what do I mean by that? I mean that the self-proclaimed “open-source troublemaker” could be the greatest threat to free software as we know it. And you’ll see why it is as dramatic as I make it out to be.

“The Hippocratic License”

But what does a single programmer have to do with the death of free software? Well, she is the original creator of the “Hippocratic License”, a so-called open-source license, that, in short, only allows the use of software for “ethical purposes”. Now, the problem with ethical software is that it is non-free in its nature, since the use of software for unethical purposes is prohibited under this license. Another problem arises when we try to determine ethics in conjunction with software. What even is “ethical”? Is it some form of law? Or are you appealing to common sense? Or do you want to go the “liberal” route and say that it’s only ethical as long as it agrees with your agenda? Now, what I want to say is that the definition of ethics is muddy at best.