After the relative success of my previous software license tier list, I have decided to make another one for funny or unusual licenses that aren’t really meant to be used in serious projects.

Unlike my other tier list, I won’t be taking into account how well the licenses are written from a legal perspective. I will only take into account the intention behind each license. This is because a lot of the licenses I am ranking would be difficult or near-impossible to enforce in court.

I am only going to be ranking licenses that are written to be absurd and not ones that are just too vague or not legally rigorous enough.

As last time, I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Don’t use any of these licenses if you expect to be able to actually enforce your license.

Tier list

S hot-potato-license Why-The-Fuck-Would-You-Even-Do-That-Holy-Shit-Public-License
A overwatch
B passive-aggressive-license curse-of-knowledge YOLO
C fuck-around-and-find-out
D bantown-public-license
F  

Explanation

Okay, let’s start with the passive-aggressive-license. At first glance, it looks just like a typical permissive license like the MIT license. However, it has one important difference, you are NOT allowed to run the code. Yes, you can modify, redistribute and sell the software, but no one is allowed to run it. This license effectively makes your software legally unusable but I like how it almost looks like a standard license with one small change so I’ll put it in B tier.

Now let’s look at the bantown-public-license. This is certainly a unique license. It allows you to do whatever you want with the software as long as you commit at least three serious crimes in your use of the software. This is effectively a public domain license since anyone using this license wouldn’t be able to sue someone for breaching the terms. I don’t think you can sue a person for not committing a serious crime (IANAL, NOT LEGAL ADVICE) so I don’t see anything stopping you from using any such software legally. Also, actually following this license is likely to get you in much, much more trouble than breaking it. This license doesn’t actually accomplish anything so it gets D tier. It probably has the same effect as WTFPL.

Next is the hot-potato-license which can only be used in a code repository. This license is quite simple. All rights to the software are reserved by whoever last committed to the repository, except the right to commit to the repository. I love the idea of throwing copyright around like a hot potato and the uncertainty it will inevitably bring to any software you might think of applying it to. Changing the copyright holder with each commit is probably a terrible idea, but I love it. Definite S tier.

Now let’s look at the curse-of-knowledge license. This license allows you to do what you want with the software and lets you use it as public domain… Assuming you haven’t read the license. As soon as you read it all your rights are nullified and you cannot do anything with the software. I can’t tell if your rights are nullified by simply knowing about the license, or knowing that a specific work is licensed under it. By reading my post you may or may not have nullified your rights to all works licensed under this license.

There is likely a concerningly large number of people who would be able to comply with this license since a lot of people just ignore the license of a piece of software. I honestly can’t believe that people don’t immediately check the license of any software they are about to use and I would not want to encourage this behaviour. I do, however, like the logical contradiction so I am giving this B tier.

Now let’s look at the overwatch license. It says that anyone can use the software, but you can only modify it if you have a higher competitive matchmaking rank than the copyright holder in Overwatch 2. This is honestly a cool idea. Maybe you could even spend time at work playing Overwatch 2 if you are required to modify software licensed under this license as part of your job. It would make playing Overwatch 2 a legally necessary part of your job. I also love the hypothetical (and likely unrealistic) idea of a judge in court checking your rank in Overwatch 2 to determine if copyright has been infringed. I’ll give this license A tier.

Next is the fuck-around-and-find-out license. This is a permissive license with the only condition being that the software is used for good and not evil where the original author gets to define what good and evil are. Surprisingly enough, this is actually based on a serious license that actually got used, the JSON license. This license is mostly a fairly standard permissive license but includes the sentence “The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil” which caused problems with the license’s compatibility. I think the fuck-around-and-find-out license is an interesting idea, you never know if you are violating the license unless the original author says so. However, this license just isn’t as interesting to me as some of the others on this list so I’ll give it C tier.

Next, let’s look at the YOLO license. It is effectively just legal-sounding nonsense written vaguely in the style of the all-caps sections of the MIT and many other licenses. It also contains a random assortment of buzzwords used in these licenses. This license doesn’t tell you anything about what the copyright holder does or does not want you to do, but it is used more to make a statement than place restrictions on the software. There are other similar licenses which are sometimes known as ‘antilicenses’. I’ll probably give this B tier.

Now let’s talk about the Why-The-Fuck-Would-You-Even-Do-That-Holy-Shit-Public-License. This is a license that lets you do whatever you want, as long as you don’t rewrite the software in Python 2. Immediate S tier.

To keep in the spirit of these licenses, I am licensing this blog post (ONLY this blog post) under my own esoteric license:

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