If code has a licence that allows sharing of modifications, is it possible to prevent it being hosted on a site that uses third party advertising? Do licences with this intent exist, or is it not possible to prevent advertising without losing the ability to share modifications?
asked Jun 24, 2015 at 19:50
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2 Answers
Maybe such a license exists. But it would not be an Free Software or Open Source license. A FLOSS license must not discriminate or forbid any form of usage. That includes the way in which the software is distributed.
The question of making or sharing modifications is conceptually unrelated to the question of usage restrictions.
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" A FLOSS license must not discriminate or forbid any form of usage. That includes the way in which the software is distributed." -> Well, the GPL does this... For example in section 11.– user38Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 20:22
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1Please elaborate.– user114Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 20:25
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1How about freedom 0? Or DFSG, clause 6? Or OSD, clause 6? Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 0:38
The Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses (BY-NC and BY-NC-SA) may do what you want, but there are three problems with using them:
- They are unsuited for use with software.
- The definition of commercial use is fuzzy, and hosting on a ad-supported site is probably the place where the uncertainty is greatest.
- The CC-NC licenses are not free/open by anybody's definition (not OSI, not DFSG, not FSF).
