ztrix / sata-license Goto Github PK

Hello,

I wanted to inform you that the SATA license is non-free and incompatible with free software licenses such as the GPL, as it fails the Desert Island Test:

Imagine being on a desert island (or any place that has no internet connection, for that matter). Free software should obviously still be legally to use in such a place.

However, as the SATA license requires you to "star/+1/like the project(s)", which is something you can't do without internet access, the license becomes non-free. Free software can't impose any condition on the usage of software, anyone must be able to use the software in any way you want and for any purpose. The SATA license excludes anybody who is poor and can't afford an internet connection, lives in a region where there is no internet connection at all, or just temporarily resides in a place without internet, like a forest or an airplane, from using SATA licensed software.

That also means that you can not license any software that uses GPL (or most other free software licenses) under SATA. GPL explicitly requires for derivates to grant the same rights to the user.

See https://people.debian.org/~bap/dfsg-faq#weird_clauses for other common pitfalls regarding additional clauses in software licensing that make the license non-free.

This is a list of projects licensed by SATA.