[Qgis-psc] [QGIS-Developer] Environmental policy

Marco Bernasocchi marco at opengis.ch
Tue Jan 28 10:16:00 PST 2020


Hi,

On 16.01.20 19:27, Even Rouault wrote:
> Regarding
>
>> prohibit the use of QGIS to the fossil-fuels industry.
> and
>
>> ...may I suggest to add GLOBAL PEACE & WAR issues to this QGIS
>> discussion on environmental questions ?
> That's not a good idea IHMO. Don't mix licensing & ethics. Free software 
> licenses explicitly don't discriminate against fields of endehavor (see clause 
> 6 of https://opensource.org/osd-annotated ), and adding discrimination is 
> currently generally considered as being a bad idea and likely not enforcable 
> in most juridictions, although they are debates around attempts at having 
> ethical open source licensing
> (https://medium.com/@gmcgath/the-futility-of-the-hippocratic-license-b6a9ad981dec).
>
> Things can get really complex. For example, regarding prohibiting the use to 
> the fossil-fuels industry, what about car makers: should they be considered as 
> being part of the fossil-fuel industry, and thus prohibited from using the 
> software and thus using proprietary mapping solution instead, etc etc. (Open 
> Source) licensing is (or is perceived to be) a sufficiently complex topic 
> already to not complicate it further.
Thanks Even for a very nice write-up of a complex matter, even-though I
see Alessandro's point, I'm absolutely with you that we should not mix
our ethics with our licenses.
>
> Personal note: my contributions to FOSS4G related software all started because 
> I was able to use them in the context of working in the defense industry in my 
> past life: is it about peace or war ? both, depending from the point of view.
>
> I should also remind, that for good or worse, the EPSG database that is 
> critical to proper CRS management in our software is mostly maintained by 
> IOGP.

With OPENGIS.ch we have refused to do some work offers because we didn't
feel confident that it was about Peace, but that is an assessment that
each individual has to do himself since as you say it depends on the
viewpoint.

> The world is complex.
>
> Even
>
-- 
Marco Bernasocchi
OPENGIS.ch CEO
QGIS.org Co-chair
marco at opengis.ch <mailto:marco at opengis.ch>
+41 (0)79 467 24 70 <tel:+41794672470>

OPENGIS.ch Logo <https://www.opengis.ch>
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