Development of Creative Commons licenses

[phyllostachys nuda <phnuda AT yahoo.com>]

Hello.

 

I have been wishing for a license for software that prohibits unethical use of that software. More specifically, it is my opinion that software, especially when linked to biotech and nanotech, will be more dangerous than atomic weapons. However I also believe that this time around, the creators may be able to get control of their creations, rather than militaries and governments, by using copyright law, which has an extreme amount of power behind it owing to the large multinational corporation's whose dependence exists upon this law being upheld.

 

The license I am looking for goes something like this: It is a viral license like any generic free license, except that it prohibits use of the software for 'violations of human rights, privacy, freedom of speech, etc'.

 

In this way I believe that corporations and governments that use these tools to control, exploit, discriminate, and abuse their populations will be suable under copyright law. Other corporations will have to back this on principle because they depend on the validity of copyright law in the courts. Legally, if someone uses the software to, say, illegally spy on citizens, then that someone is going to be breaking copyright law. Nobody has to fight about right, wrong, etc. It's just a matter of property law.

 

The only problem comes with governents that use 'eminent domain' to take code, or simply outright steal it. Or countries that don't care about copyright law.

 

Thus some brilliant new technology that could wipe out the entire planet should not be trusted in the hands of any human being, and so should not be invented until we are spiritually evolved enough to handle it.

 

But a lot of things, say, web services or compression or database code, these things are in a different category. They could be used for evil but they aren't designed specifically for it. We need them but we might weild a little control over their use with a proper license.

 

Thanks.

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