Which license for an open source project which may be, but is not intended to be, used as a bot in some apps?

Question

I'm wondering if there is some license which I could put on my website on which I could publish an open-source application that potentially could be used for purposes of cheating in one game for smartphones.

Now, I have to stress that the goal of the application is in no way cheating, so with this license I want to eliminate the possibility of the authors of the smartphone game to (in which my bot could be used) sue me in some way if someone else starts using the application to get better at their game.

I may be too paranoid, but with all the weird laws you just never know.

I did a little research and came up with CreativeCommons, but was wondering if any of you guys had a similar situation and what did you do?

By the way, I did read and considered the moral implications of the possible app appearing on my site, so now I just need some license as stated in the question.

Answer 1

First and foremost, you should be consulting with a lawyer. Just as you've spent years learning your trade, they've spent years learning the ins and outs of law & liability. They know what you can and can't say, what will hold up in court, what is actually en forcible and WHAT MUST BE WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS.

That said, if your product is some sort of general-purpose tool (e.g. packet sniffer, debugger...), you're probably pretty safe as long as you're not promoting it as being used for cheating. Definitely don't make reference to any particular game. On top of that, it's pretty common to have a "we're not responsible for what you do with our software" clause.

Answer 2

I would think that you would have a hard time enforcing such a license. There will be some ambiguity in the license, and only a court would be able to decide whether someone violates it. Would I be correct to say that you don't have a financial interest in enforcing your license? If so I doubt that you'd be willing to pay the legal fees.

Treat your library like any other piece of technology: it is possible to use it for both good and nefarious purposes. Choose an open-source license that suits you and perhaps put an additional disclaimer or statement along-side it, expressing your wishes.

It may be more effective to modify your library so it less useful for cheating, but still functional for it's intended purpose.