Posted on 01/27/2008 5:19:35 AM PST by dayglored
What you can - and cannot do - with your software is often determined by the code owner's license. From not using open source APIs with closed-source digital rights management (DRM) to being barred from fiddling with Windows source code, we've seen it all.
Or have we?
Joining the open source and commercial melee is a document that pretty much rules out using a new JavaScript tool by anyone working in - or associated with - the pharmaceutical, farming and food, and some manufacturing industries. Oh, and certain universities are out, too.
ExtTLD, for developing components on the open source Ext JS framework, has been released under a license apparently suited only to vegans, vegetarians and animal rights activists.
Among the terms, ExtTLD cannot be used in connection with the development and manufacture of products that involve animal testing, products whose ingredients might come from testing on animals or genetically modified organisms involving animal genes.
That means you can't be involved in testing and neither can your products or services.
"Animal product" in this case is defined as a whole cornucopia of items spanning meat, seafood, honey, fur, silk and eggs.
Also out is participation in animal-based sports, such as rodeo riding, and transport of animals - so there go the haulage sectors and, possibly, anybody developing sat-nav systems and applications.
ExtTLD has been devised by one Jaro Benc and is based on Java Enterprise Edition tag files. ExtTLD is a library for Java web developers that generates Ext JS JavaScript at the runtime based on a JSP tag library. ExtTLD is a separate offering to Ext JS.
If ExtTLD sounds like it's right up your dog pound then go here. To check out whether you qualify for this well-meaning but, possibly impossible-to-use, license go here.
But... HONEY??? SILK???
What does such stuff have to do with SOFTWARE???
Tech ping...
Bees and worms are animals too.
Consider them the fetuses of the Animal Liberation Movement.
Yeah, that's an interesting perspective....
I have no objection to folks who care for animals. I do, myself -- I did many years of wildlife rehabilitation that involved dealing with injured and sick skunks, raccoons, birds, and whatnot. I believe that part of our responsibility as stewards of God's Earth is to treat animals properly.
But that doesn't stop me from eating them. I'm an omnivore (except brussel sprouts and red beets, those things are deadly). And wearing them (my favorite outerwear is my leather H-D jacket). And I don't have any problem wiping out a hornets' nest if it's on my house.
In any case, animal rights crazies should stay the hell away from software licenses. This is just stupid.
I agree with you that we have a god-given responsibility to treat animals humanely, and the Animal Liberation movement goes a too far. But I actually hold those “Whole Foods” and assorted business-”liberals” in greater contempt. You know those “free range” chickens they sell in stores now? You think they’ve spent their entire lives walking around a farm - but that’s not the case, it only spends one week out of it’s cages. The chicken’s life is 12 weeks long (or something like that). And for that one week, they are able to charge an extra $3 a pound.
But their software license is just property rights - they’ve made a product and you have to follow their rules if you want to use it.
If that is true, and I have no reason to doubt you at all, then "factory" raised chickens have a far less confined life. They too are about 12 weeks old, but spend at most a few hours in a cage -- when they are being transported to the processing plant.
Oh, I don't object -- on a legal basis -- to their tying animal rights to software licensing. I just think it's stupid and pointless. Among other things, it severely limits their market to those who are as radical as they are.
“Stalking the Wild Asparagus”, eh?
Ummm, is WHAT better? I don't see anything...
Organic milk for example usually only means that the cow had access to a pasture part of the day during clement weather. In the north that means that during the winter that organic cows are treated pretty much the same as the non-organic.
This raises all sorts of possibilities, most of the bad.
For instance, could you forbid the use of your software to any organization or individual that supports the Republican party, based on public records? How about avowed Christians? A particular race?
WOW. That’s so rich it’s nearly obscene. I didn’t think you could do that with vegetables... ;-)
This innovative license combines property rights with political and ideological activism. It opens another front on the war the left is conducting against those not on the left. It invites license restrictions against Christians, conservatives, pro-life groups, pro-RKBA web sites, etc.
LOL!!!
Tasty asparagus, YUM!
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