Bad Licenses

A compendium of absurd, funny, and downright bad licenses. A table of contents is provided here with titles and a summary of what the license does. Sources, when available, are provided in the descriptions

UNOFFICIAL LEGAL ADVICE: Don't use these. Like, ever.

• Passive-Aggressive License

  A license that allows you to copy, modify, or distribute the source code or compiled binaries, but doesn't let you run the program.

• Non-White-Heterosexual-Male License

  A license that lets anyone who isn't a white heterosexual male do whatever they want. Otherwise you have to follow the rules. Source

• Hot Potato License

  Transfers exclusive ownership of the entire project to whoever committed the last change.

• Buena Onda License Agreement

  A license that releases the source code into the public domain, but politely asks you to not do mean things with it. Source

• DON'T BE A DICK PUBLIC LICENSE

  Let's you do whatever you want so long as you aren't a dick. Gives several examples of dickish behavior including "modifying the original work to contain harmful content" without specifying what "harmful" means. Source

• Protected Free To Use Software License

  A truly bizarre "open-source" license with a litany of baffling restrictions, like not allowing anyone to redistribute binaries, ever, for any reason (except on github, I guess).

• YOLO License

  420 blaze it ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

• JSON License

  An MIT-style license with a morality clause stating "The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil." Of course, Good and Evil are subjective, so this is legally unenforceable at best, and may or may not allow the author to sue you for any reason. Source

• Overwatch License

  Modification of the source code is only allowed if your competitive rank in Overwatch is higher than the maintainer's.

• DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE

  You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO. Source

• LHA License

  An antiquated license originally in Japanese with bizarre requirements and vague wording.

• Minecraft Mod Public License

  A license intended for minecraft mods, which, among other things, requires the end-user to own a legal copy of Minecraft. Should not be used on things that aren't minecraft mods (for that matter, probably shouldn't be used at all).

• Anyone But Richard Stallman License

  Anyone can do anything they want with the software, except Richard Stallman, who cannot use or redistribute it in any way. Source

• Nice License

  You can only use the software if you properly document your public API. No definition for "negligent" documentation is provided. Source