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Ethical source licenses #2225

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Ethical source licenses #2225

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fix paragraphing
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markcmiller86 committed Jan 23, 2025
commit f61ca2fec780da77fd8ddc816f803f5d5912aeb4
4 changes: 3 additions & 1 deletion CuratedContent/EthicalOpenSource.md
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@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Well known examples are [Server-Side Public License (SSPL)](https://en.wikipedia
Nonetheless, because such licenses mean the source code is available for all to see, they are often confused with *open-source*.
A technically more accurate designation for this brand of license commonly used in the industry is *source-available*.

While source-available licensing is a relatively recent trend in the industry, a number of commonly recognized major projects utilize them including [Elastic Search](https://www.elastic.co), [MongoDB](https://www.mongodb.com/legal/licensing/server-side-public-license), [Confluent](https://www.confluent.io/confluent-community-license-faq/) and [GitLab Enterprise Edition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source-available_software#GitLab_Enterprise_Edition_License_(EE_License)).
While source-available licensing is a relatively recent trend in the industry, some commonly recognized major projects utilize them including [Elastic Search](https://www.elastic.co), [MongoDB](https://www.mongodb.com/legal/licensing/server-side-public-license), [Confluent](https://www.confluent.io/confluent-community-license-faq/) and [GitLab Enterprise Edition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source-available_software#GitLab_Enterprise_Edition_License_(EE_License)).

A new kind of source-available license based on ethical use considerations has begun to emerge as well.
This brand of licensing is referred to as [*ethical source*](https://ethicalsource.dev/licenses/) and aims to restrict the use of software to ethical purposes.
@@ -30,10 +30,12 @@ Of the approximately 8,500 packages in Spack, only one uses an ethical-source li
To put these ethical-source licenses in perspective, it is worth considering if and how ethical use restrictions have been applied to other real-world products or services.
A good example is chemicals.
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Recommend a more scientific examples. I will try to use chatGPT to think of one :)

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Here is a somewhat computing/scientific example for the follow-on sections:

"To put ethical-source licenses in perspective, it is worth considering how ethical use restrictions have been applied to other real-world technologies, such as cryptographic algorithms. These methods are fundamental to securing digital communication, protecting financial transactions, and ensuring data privacy. However, they can also be exploited for illicit activities such as ransomware, unauthorized data encryption, or circumventing security measures. End-to-end encryption, for example, is widely used in messaging apps to protect user privacy, while secure hashing algorithms help ensure data integrity and password security—applications generally considered ethical. Yet, like most cryptographic tools, they can also be misused for unauthorized activities, such as hiding malicious communications, facilitating fraud, or concealing digital footprints.

For those interested in considering using an “ethical source” license, the most useful part of the Wikipedia article curated here may be the long list of references illustrating the community’s dialog on the topic."

Chemical manufacturers all over the world face various restrictions in what they produce and to whome and where they can distribute/sell it.

Two good examples to consider are ammonium nitrate and fuel oil.
Ammonium nitrate is the most widely used fertilizer and helps to grow a substantial portion of the world's food.
Although use of fuel oil has declined substantially, it is still used to heat and light homes of a non-trivial portion of the world's population.
Most would consider both of these uses ethical.

However, even 25 years after the [Oklahoma city bombing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing) (which involved Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil (ANFO)) attempts to regulate the manufacture and distribution of these products have either stalled or met with limited success.
As with most things in life, open-source software can be used for good or abused for evil.