Silly question, maybe:
Is it acceptable for a free license to limit the use of whatever it covers to lawful purposes?
The question is not about a free software license, but about an open data license - specifically this one, by the Danish government body Digitaliseringsstyrelsen (Agency for Digitalization):
http://digitaliser.dk/resource/2432531
The clause that makes me wonder is this:
"Det skal sikres, at brug af data er i overensstemmelse med dansk ret."
... meaning ...
"It must be ensured that the data are used in acccordance with Danish law."
Apart from this one clause, the license is a very decent BSD- or MIT-style license.
But I wonder if this one clause is a poison pill that they should be adviced to take out?
Now suppose ... someone took property value data to make an app which figures out which families may be rich and uses it to burgle them. When they are caught, should they also be prosecuted for breaking the open data license? They might, but it seems absurd.
A second scenario: Someone makes another and perfectly legitimate traffic monitoring application, and someone buys that app and uses it to figure out when trucks carrying valuable goods pass. The crooks did not make the app, which is legit. Should the supplier of the app be prosecuted for not ensuring a legal use of the data? But how could they?
Could a free software license contain such a clause? I guess it would be non-free. But open data or open content? I'm a bit confused as to what to think about that.