Just a minor note, a license that works this way can't be accurately described as Open Source. It's more accurate to say that ml5.js is an Ethical Source license. See https://ethicalsource.dev/ for more details.
I'm sure this is a name that will get debated as it becomes more common. But personally, speaking just as an outside observer I really like the name Ethical Source. I think it gets across what the movement's priorities are (open access with ethical restrictions). I think it gets across the movement's connections to the Open Source movement and its origins. But it does so in a way that doesn't promote confusion around the fact that the movement does have different philosophies and is a separate licensing scheme. It's a movement that sprung out of a specific objection to Open Source licensing philosophy (https://opensource.org/faq#evil) and makes a targeted pivot (Open->Ethical) to address the concerns it has.
Well said, I didn't mean to misconstrue! Thanks for sharing this information and vocabulary. Indeed, Ethical Source does seem to be quite communicative. It also probably provides enough of a signal, when it comes to choosing licenses, if a decision-maker has some level of self-awareness. (e.g. If I feel my project doesn't have a problem meeting an "Ethical" standard, I'll feel comfortable choosing Ethical Source. Otherwise, I'll choose Open Source.)
It could also be a signal to end-users, community members, customers, and other stakeholders as well — who may prefer technologies built with Ethical Source, as compared to Open Source, which seems like it could be similar to patterns we see in the real world around "Fair Trade" and "Ethically Sourced" etc.
Ethical Source licenses are proprietary, but just like in the case of Source Available licenses it can often be useful to create subcategories. No one gets up in arms when we in the Open Source movement distinguish between Copyleft and permissive licenses. I don't see why we should get up in arms when other people introduce the same kinds of granularity in their license terms.
There's a meaningful difference between an Ethical Source license and, say, an Adobe License. There's also a meaningful difference between an Ethical Source license and a traditional Source Available license like Mongo's. Yes, they all fall under the umbrella of proprietary licenses, but it's reasonable for communities to want more specific terms that accurately describe what their priorities/goals are.
I object pretty strongly to people trying to co-opt the Open Source movement for their own ends, particularly when I think they're trying to redefine/undermine terms like Open Source or deny the legitimacy of Open Source definitions purely for their own promotional purposes. This has been one of my chief criticisms of Source Available licenses and the debates around software like MongoDB. I think it would be hypocritical for me to turn around and try to dictate how other communities describe their licenses. And honestly, I think that Ethical v Open is a really descriptive way to describe the differences between the communities, and your comment demonstrates that.
Immediately you're pushing back that Ethical Source licenses aren't Open, they're proprietary. You're right, they're not Open. So the Ethical/Open substitution is in a lot of ways a perfect encapsulation of what's different here. Open Source licenses preserve Open access, Ethical Source licenses (at least attempt to) preserve social ethics.
I really don't get what the objection is. If I thought that Ethical Source as a term was trying to trick people into believing that it was Open Source or deny that the software was proprietary, I'd be angry about that. But at least from what I can see right now, I don't think that's the case. Far from being cagey or deceptive, the term Ethical Source actually draws attention to the fact that it's diverging from Open Source. I don't see why I should have a problem with that, I think it's a good term.
I've gotten into a lot of arguments with people about the word Open, from multiple perspectives. I've had people argue to me that Open is incorrect because Copyleft licenses restrict people's ability to restrict other people's freedom. I've had people argue to me that Open is incorrect because permissive licenses don't restrict people's ability to restrict other people's freedom. I've had the Source Available crowd argue to me (I would claim somewhat disingenuously) that the Open Source movement is committing some kind of bizarre "moral offense" by implying that Source Available software isn't open or libre by our definitions.
In general, I don't give those arguments a lot of weight. There is no completely global agreed-upon definition of what "open" means, but used in the context of Open Source and software licensing, it represents a community-decided, longstanding set of values that are reasonably understood by most people to be at least adjacent to open access and user freedom.
When I think about Ethical Source licenses -- I'm in the Open Source movement, I think there are downsides to trying to dictate how people use software and what they can do with it, even evil people. I'm also somewhat skeptical that allowing individual owners to dictate what they mean by "ethical" is sustainable long-term. Part of the reason Open Source is still around is that we don't allow people to dictate what they mean by Open, we have a set of standards, and if your license doesn't follow those standards, tough luck, you're out. We don't allow a lot of ambiguity. Even though Ethical Source does have community structures in place to work more democratically, I still worry when I look at the Ethical Source licenses whether this is a community that can survive future schisms over its values.
But, having said that, I'm still hard-pressed to think of another word I would prefer over Ethical. Regardless of any disagreements over whether their approach is feasible or practical, it's still an accurate summation of what they're trying to do. These are licenses that dictate access based on a kind of moral adherence. There is of course a little bit of marketing going on with the term Ethical (in the same way that there's a bit of marketing going on with Open), and of course there is no completely global agreed-upon definition of what "ethical" means (same as with open/libre). But the point of terminology like Open/Ethical is not to perfectly encapsulate everyone's philosophical views of what those words mean, they're to describe coordinated movements that try to align themselves with those words.
Whenever some Source Available grifter starts complaining to me that the OSI shouldn't get to define what Open means for everyone, I try not to take the bait, I try to remind them that Open Source is a community with community-defined definitions, and as long as those terms aren't wildly deceptive we're going to keep using them, thank you very much. So I kind of have the same response here: people can disagree with whether the Ethical Source licenses are actually ethical (the same as they can disagree with whether Copyleft licenses are open), but ultimately, it's a community that's defining its own terms, and I think if it's not being obviously deceptive it has some right to do that.
Just a minor note, a license that works this way can't be accurately described as Open Source. It's more accurate to say that ml5.js is an Ethical Source license. See https://ethicalsource.dev/ for more details.
I'm sure this is a name that will get debated as it becomes more common. But personally, speaking just as an outside observer I really like the name Ethical Source. I think it gets across what the movement's priorities are (open access with ethical restrictions). I think it gets across the movement's connections to the Open Source movement and its origins. But it does so in a way that doesn't promote confusion around the fact that the movement does have different philosophies and is a separate licensing scheme. It's a movement that sprung out of a specific objection to Open Source licensing philosophy (https://opensource.org/faq#evil) and makes a targeted pivot (Open->Ethical) to address the concerns it has.