Programming And Politics

I've recently gotten interested in Wiimote programming for the PC. One of the things that has definitely piqued my interest is Johnny Chung Lee's amazing work with homebrew Wiimote applications (Lee is a graduate student at CMU).

I recently decided to play with the relatively simple GlovePIE software, written by Carl Kenner (no linkie for a reason). I opened up the ReadMe to learn how to get started. So my jaw dropped when I saw this:

You may not export this software to Israel, or use it in Israel (including the occupied territories), until Israel has ended its occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and anywhere else it may occupy. If you try to run it in Israel it will give you an error.

On his actual website: You may not use this software on military bases, or for military purposes, or in Israel (which amounts to the same thing). Violation of the license agreement will be prosecuted.

Yikes!

I believe that the author has the right to put whatever conditions and restrictions he wants on his software, however uninformed and misguided. And I doubt any court of law would prosecute an Israeli for using his software. But it goes without saying that I'm not going to use this thing. And that I'm seriously disappointed about that.

At least, by wearing his nutty politics on his sleeve, I know not to support his work in any way (not even linking to it on my blog). I'm sure there are plenty of other projects that I do like and I do support authored by someone who reads The Protocols of the Elders of Zion every night as a bedtime story. Maybe I'd just rather not know...

--YY

P.S. This is not news - GlovePIE has had such language in its license for years. But it's news to me :-) And as the Wiimote is becoming more popular, GlovePIE is becoming more visible.