Weird hack of the day...

[elfs]

This has to be the oddest thing I've seen all week:

//   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or 
//   modify it under the terms of ISLAMIC LAWS and GNU Lesser General 
//   Public License either version 2, or (at your option) any later 
//   version.  
// 
//   ISLAMIC LAWS should be followed and respected if they differ than 
//   terms of the GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Saying that general rules against Usury govern computer code and its use is quite a stretch at best.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

I didn't say that, though.

What I *did* say is that the Islamic law is very general (I gave a few examples), and there could conceivably be things inside it that would clash with things found in the GPL.

I'm neither a lawyer nor a scholar of Islamic law. What I am, though, is totally fed up with the automatic sneer in the US about all things Islamic. There's *plenty* to criticize in all systems (I'm pretty sure Goedel's Incompleteness Theorem covers that).

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

If it's general and not spelled out, then it's not a law. It can be a "generally accepted good idea." It can be a social norm. But that's true of a number of things in our collective pasts, from apartheid to the notion that the King is annointed by God. Yet if they are not codified in the written law or religious books, then they are not laws. They are but Societal Norms and vary widely with different societies.

Me, I didn't sneer as much as I chuckled that the stringently codified Islamic law (which you yourself pointed out covers many, many books) which hasn't changed in centuries can contain sections regarding computers, software, and governance thereof. It is the same silliness I would have for Amish rules for the Internet.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

I apologize - I'm oversensitive, and misread your chuckle. Sorry!

As to the difference between "an Islamic law" and "Islamic law" - consider the difference between the Constitution, federal law, and state law. Something that is a law in Alabama but not in Washington is still a law - and it's a law under the same general system. Stringently coded Islamic law is a contradiction in terms: each scholar can decide what the specific terms are.

As to Amish rules for the Internet - since they seem unlikely to use electricity, they'd find it hard to use it. But Ultra-Orthodox Jews have launched their very own browser: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE55D0UQ20090614