TL;DR: it’s a copyright license that forbids any non-worker-owned company from using it.
Full License Text
ANTI-CAPITALIST SOFTWARE LICENSE (v 1.4)
Copyright © [year] [copyright holders]
This is anti-capitalist software, released for free use by individuals and organizations that do not operate by capitalist principles.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person or organization (the "User") obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to use, copy, modify, merge, distribute, and/or sell copies of the Software, subject to the following conditions:
1. The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or modified versions of the Software.
2. The User is one of the following:
a. An individual person, laboring for themselves
b. A non-profit organization
c. An educational institution
d. An organization that seeks shared profit for all of its members, and allows non-members to set the cost of their labor
3. If the User is an organization with owners, then all owners are workers and all workers are owners with equal equity and/or equal vote.
4. If the User is an organization, then the User is not law enforcement or military, or working for or under either.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
So I’ve made some posts recently asking about the various difrerent licensing and development philosophies we could apply as socialist software developers, and have now found this license.
It is listed on GNU’s list of incompatible licenses as a non-free license, since it limits what the software can be used for, and who can use it, which goes against freedom 0.
And I found it intresting enough to share. As
an alternative
(To the fairly common (Lemmy, for example) use of the GPL 3 License or the AGPL 3 License by socialist software)
for us socialists to clearly state our political views through our licensing.
The biggest drawback I can think of when using this license is that it limits the flexibility for comrades who are better suited with a different legal enterprise structure, while still working as a cooperative in practice.
But let me know any thoughts you tay have on this. I just thought it was intresting enough to share and keep the discussion going.
Further reading
There are also some links for further reading at the bottom of the web page I might share at some other time as their own posts.
This is delightful.
Especially in contrast to many “foss” licenses which allow for private profit making using the software without any compensation for the contributors.
Strong Copyleft licenses are better as well than permissive licenses, and the ACSL is referred to by the authors as
And it requires attribution. But the added bonus cherry on top that this license gives is what thex explain as
Most existing licenses, including free and open source licenses, consider qualities like source code availability, ease of use, commercialization, and attribution, none of which speak directly to the conditions under which the software is written. ::: Instead, the ACSL considers the organization licensing the software, how they operate in the world, and how the people involved relate to one another.
Which I think is a good addition.