The Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement (HESSLA) is a

software license A software license is a legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software. Since the 1970s, software copyright has been recognized in the United States. Despite the copyright being recognized, most companies prefer to sell lic ...

proposed by Hacktivismo that attempts to put

ethical Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied e ...

restrictions on use and modification of software released under it. The license was written by Oxblood Ruffin (of Hacktivismo and CULT OF THE DEAD COW) and Eric Grimm, an attorney with the EFF. The HESSLA allows for enhancements to be made and for

derivative work In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of a first, previously created original work (the underlying work). The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent from ...

s to be created, but it prohibits the use or modification of the software to violate

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

or to introduce features that spy on the user. It is intended to be a legally enforceable document. However, due to these restrictions, it is not technically a

free software license A free-software license is a notice that grants the recipient of a piece of software extensive rights to modify and redistribute that software. These actions are usually prohibited by copyright law, but the rights-holder (usually the author) ...

or an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

license, though it was inspired by

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

and open source licenses.

Criticism

HESSLA has been criticized by the

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...

for introducing restrictions that they claim are ineffective for preventing abuse, but introduce legal incompatibility with other licenses. It also is listed as a good example of a '' human rights license'' in the

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...

Derivatives

The

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

xB Browser was temporarily based on the '' Torrify Ethical Software License Agreement'' (TESLA) which was built upon HESSLA.

References

External links

The HESSLA
* Human Rights License Entry on Creative Commons Wiki {{Cult of the Dead Cow Cult of the Dead Cow Software licensing Politics and technology

Criticism

Derivatives

See also

References

External links