Not being able to use 'Do no Evil' software does not "cost" somebody who cannot use it anything. There is no "charge" going on there, nothing is being taken from them. Crockford has "cost" anybody shit. He has only chosen not to give them something on a silver platter. If Crockford is not involved in any sort of transaction, then he is not responsible for any costs incurred during tenuously related translations between other parties.
Some developer that cannot be bothered to read and understand a license does not somehow mean that Crockford is "costing" them anything. These hypothetical people fucked up, and they should fucking responsibility for themselves for god's sake. What a pathetic dodge.
Do you also think that NASA has "cost" the North Korean space program anything by not freely giving away rocket designs? Entitled to the absurd.
In this discussion I have tried to disagree like a gentleman: to be polite and respectful while making a case for something I believe to be true.
In return, you have sworn at me, called my argument "a pathetic dodge" and "entitled to the absurd," and came very close to putting words in my mouth with the North Korean strawman.
That makes it difficult to have a polite discussion, but I do want to clarify one thing.
I didn't say that Crockford was responsible for the economic cost of the old json.js license. Of course he had every right to release his code under any license he chose.
I'm simply saying that there was a cost, compared with the situation that would have existed had the code been originally released with a standard MIT license. People spent time and money that they wouldn't have if that had been the case.
Since "cost" seems to be a loaded word here, let me put it another way. It should be clear that there would have been a benefit to the world if the original json.js, JSMin, etc. had used a standard MIT license, because many more people could have used the code. That benefit was lost because of the "Evil" clause.
And, to his credit, I think Crockford eventually realized this when he re-released the code with a pure public domain dedication.
Some developer that cannot be bothered to read and understand a license does not somehow mean that Crockford is "costing" them anything. These hypothetical people fucked up, and they should fucking responsibility for themselves for god's sake. What a pathetic dodge.
Do you also think that NASA has "cost" the North Korean space program anything by not freely giving away rocket designs? Entitled to the absurd.