Human rights enshrined in open source software

Software distributed under an "enhanced source" licence released this week will be legally prohibited from censoring or spying on users.

Crafted by Hacktivismo, a hacking group organised by the Cult of the Dead Cow, the Hacktivismo enhanced-source software licence agreement says that anyone using code released under it must respect privacy, free expression, due process and other human rights.

HESSLA comes as concern is growing over governments using technology such as blocking software to restrict what their citizens can do or say online. In September, Republicans in the US released a report titled "Tear Down This Firewall," and this week, Amnesty International published a report highlighting China's crackdown on internet use.

"The Hacktivismo enhanced-source software licence agreement marks the first time technology transfer has been linked to protecting human rights," said Oxblood Ruffin, founder of Hacktivismo. "Our clients and end-users aren't building the firewalls to keep democracy out. They're locked inside trying to break free."

In July, Ruffin published a manifesto that referenced the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and said internet censorship is "a serious form of organised and systematic violence against citizens, is intended to generate confusion and xenophobia and is a reprehensible violation of trust." Hacktivismo's license says that any government that violates human rights is prohibited from using software released under it.

The "enhanced source" licence intentionally tracks much of the language of the well-known General Public Licence and borrows most of the GPL's concepts, such as the one that says anyone incorporating code released under the licence in their program must also make the source code of their program available. In fact, Hacktivismo recommends that programmers release their code under both licences.

One problem Hacktivismo might encounter is that the current licence is so broad it discourages developers from using it. For instance, it bans governments, individuals and corporations from any "monitoring of individuals," which might apply to popular network monitoring utilities, and bans "filtering" of any expression, which could cover routine utilities such as spam-filtering programs.

Another section of the licence requires that the creator of any program that uses cryptography for authentication or confidentiality must ensure that the algorithms meet minimum security thresholds. And if any disputes arise involving another nation, the licence says, governments relinquish their right of sovereign immunity and agree to be sued in federal court in the United States.

The licence enables both Hacktivismo and its end users to go to court if someone tries to use the software in a malicious manner, or to introduce harmful changes into the software. It also contains more robust language than has previously been used to maximise enforcement against governments around the world. The HESSLA explicitly prohibits anybody from introducing "spyware, surveillance technology, or other undesirable code into modified versions of HESSLA-licensed programs". Additionally, the licence prohibits any use of the software by any government that has any policy or practice of violating human rights.

Declan McCullagh writes for News.com