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If I have an app and some of its parts are illegal in some countries (e.g. due to different copyright laws in different countries). And the app is licensed under (L/A)GPL v3. Can I forbid using and distribution my app in certain countries? If no, are there any open-source licenses that allow this?
Thank you.
A license either is an open-source license, or it restricts usage of the software to certain regions or types of usage. You cannot have both.
That said, it is not your responsibility as the software creator to forbid people the usage when the law already forbids the usage. That serves no purpose (law overrides license, always) and would impose an unnecessary restriction when the law changes. It's the responsibility of the users of software to obey the law and not use unlawful tools.
What you can do is to add to your README a section which explains the legal situation with an emphasis on countries where the usage of your software or its distribution to certain regions might expose a person to risk of prosecution.
The requirement you propose is in contradiction with the official definition of open source, namely with criteria 1 and 5 (since I interpret inhabitants of a certain country as group of persons):
- Free Redistribution
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
- No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
It is also in contradiction with the definition of free software, from which the official open source definition indirectly derived, and which is short enough to be printed in full:
A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms:
- The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
- The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
There is a common misconception about what "open source" means:
However, the obvious meaning for the expression “open source software”—and the one most people seem to think it means—is “You can look at the source code.” That criterion is much weaker than the free software definition, much weaker also than the official definition of open source. It includes many programs that are neither free nor open source.
planetmaker's answer already states that it is nor your responsibility to prevent people from using your software, which I agree with.
I want to go one step further though, and say that from an ethical standpoint, it is very much your responsibility to make your software as free as possible, to help people keep (or regain) the control over their own computing.
What ever oppressive laws prohibit the use of free software in some country, it is not our job to support them in any way.
Background information
What is a "license"?
The answer: A "license" is the permission given by the author of a software (or other kind of copyright protected work) to do something with the software that requires the permission of the author according to the law.
If the law states that something is allowed or forbidden independently of the permission of the author, the license terms do not have any effect:
In a country where the law forbids the distribution of certain software, it does not matter that the GPL states that distribution is allowed: It's forbidden by the law, so a "license" cannot allow it.
On the other hand, in a country where the law allows using foreign source code in closed-source programs without the author's permission, it does not matter that the GPL forbids this: It's allowed by law, so a "license" cannot forbid it.
The same is true for the (L)GPL and for the MS EULA.
Your actual question
... some of its parts are illegal in some countries ...
If this is the only reason why you want to forbid using the software in some countries, this is no reason to forbid the use in those countries in the license:
As I wrote above, it does not matter what the license says if the law forbids using the program.
You may publish your program under (L)GPL and point out that the use or distribution of your program may be illegal according to the laws of certain countries.
