---
title: An Anti-License Manifesto
---

software licenses are unavoidably a legal tool.
the legal system, in the US and approximately everywhere else, is not a machine that leads to justice.
therefore, software licenses do not lead to justice.

we cannot software license our way to a better world.
as such, we should and must software license our way to a *stranger* world.
permissive licenses and copyleft licenses are both tools of the corporate status quo.
we therefore reject all conventional software licenses, and instead champion the weird, the experimental, the decorative, the hostile, the absurd, the useless, the straight up unhinged.

some anti-licenses:
- [Micah Elizabeth Scott's untitled license for several projects](https://github.com/scanlime/bandsocks/blob/457c073e262da1d85b40eb2cce8e661fe829e661/LICENSE.md)
- [Bouke van der Bijl's untitled license for `monkey`](https://github.com/bouk/monkey/blob/b118a17387657e860bb85a0f3dafd15cad03c266/LICENSE.md)
- [Ben Keith's Fight Club License](https://github.com/benlk/misc-licenses/blob/7070c779b922ff6e98d96ff20d407a91ca1b0231/fight-club-license.md)
- [Ben Keith's Schrödinger License](https://github.com/benlk/misc-licenses/blob/7070c779b922ff6e98d96ff20d407a91ca1b0231/schrodinger-license.md)
- [Ben Keith's Mephistopheles License](https://github.com/benlk/misc-licenses/blob/7070c779b922ff6e98d96ff20d407a91ca1b0231/mephistopheles-license.md)
- [Andrew "Tuna" Williamson's Chicken Dance License](https://github.com/supertunaman/cdl/blob/f0ae734f4abce311070ac0c401dbc0230cbc4344/COPYING)
- [why the lucky stiff's Death and Repudiation License](https://github.com/indeyets/syck/blob/2656dcc9e879a26e0d7c36ae45f22150d2692ad0/COPYING#L26-L53)
- [Joseph Redmon's YOLO LICENSE](https://github.com/pjreddie/darknet/blob/2f1fc380e950a29910ae011d61929ecd16baa62e/LICENSE)
- [Rain's Overwatch License](https://github.com/ErikMcClure/bad-licenses/blob/04fafc7f0701faf5616d7f531e3c02801e3dc8c8/overwatch)
- [the Bantown public license](https://github.com/ErikMcClure/bad-licenses/blob/04fafc7f0701faf5616d7f531e3c02801e3dc8c8/Bantown-public-license)
- [Xe's Be Gay Do Crimes License](https://github.com/Xe/waifud/blob/e7de416dbc0c14cf29e50b24e2d6337881294da9/LICENSE)
- [my Fuck Bitches Get Money License](https://paste.sr.ht/~boringcactus/f7ad59d5e244418787ced364df669dcf537d9662)
- [Mitchell Harper's AntiLicense](https://github.com/mitchellharper12/folding-scripts/blob/d0d519bfcb964338657d5943ff664fed317e4b6a/LICENSE.md?plain=1#L30-L37)
- [whatever the hell is going on here](https://github.com/12Me21/powder-game-1/blob/f4fa13739f4f2079f568536230fb366782e6e85f/LICENSE.mp4)
- [Big Bill Hell's License](https://cohost.org/lifning/post/1023282-bbhl-license-v1)
- [the MIT (Mostly Incomprehensible Text) License](https://github.com/Sorixelle/srxl.me/blob/77621d443f1f52c9907bac3ff9c8bf495e4880e6/LICENSE)