CAcarlos-menezes·Feb 23, 2025Submission
A compendium of "open-source" licenses
42 points · Open discussionErikMcClure
bad-licenses
OPEN SOURCE2021–2025
ErikMcClure / bad-licenses
bad-licenses
A compendium of absurd "open-source" licenses.
6Distinct people
6Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
2.1KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
A compendium of absurd "open-source" licenses.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year6 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2021-09-08 21:50:04 UTC to 2025-02-23 00:22:39 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
What Hacker News says
6 sourcesOne fun recent option I've seen is the NWSL (Nuclear Waste Software License), which begins:
> This software license is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it! Writing this software and associated documentation files (the "Software") was important to us.
It's functionally equivalent to a two-clause BSD license, but I pity the fool who tries to get their legal department to approve it.
https://github.com/ErikMcClure/bad-licenses/blob/master/NWSL
(The repository has a couple of other amusing licenses which you may wish to peruse.)
In Please stop inventing new software licences (2020)"Don't ask me about it License" looks a bit shorter[0].
0: https://github.com/ErikMcClure/bad-licenses/blob/master/dont...
In Htmx changes license to Zero-Clause BSDA compendium of funny, and downright bad licenses
44 points · Open discussionBad-licenses: A compendium of open-source licenses
2 points · Open discussionA compendium of absurd, funny, and downright bad licenses
4 points · Open discussion