Digital Freedom Resistance

We refuse to arm digital tyrants.

Manifesto Against All Idiotic Laws That Destroy Digital Freedom and Privacy

We, the authors, maintainers, and users of free software, declare total and uncompromising opposition to every law, regulation, and government practice on Earth that undermines the fundamental human rights to privacy, anonymity, secure communication, and uncensored access to knowledge.

These laws are not “necessary security measures.” They are idiotic, authoritarian power grabs that treat every citizen as a suspect and every developer as a potential criminal. We reject them entirely.

The Condemned Categories of Laws

(Non-exhaustive, current as of 2026)

  1. Encryption-weakening / backdoor mandates: Any law that forces developers or companies to insert government access mechanisms, limit key lengths, or provide “exceptional access” (Australia’s Assistance and Access Act, UK Investigatory Powers Act, similar proposals in the EU “Chat Control” regime, India’s IT Rules traceability requirements, etc.).
  2. Mass data-retention mandates without judicial oversight: Laws requiring ISPs, hosting providers, apps or operating systems to store metadata or content for months or years (Russia’s Yarovaya Law, China’s Cybersecurity Law, remnants of EU data-retention regimes still enforced in several member states).
  3. Warrantless mass surveillance: Laws authorizing bulk collection of communications or location data without individualized probable cause (US FISA §702 / CLOUD Act, China’s National Intelligence Law, Russia’s Sovereign Internet Law, similar frameworks in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and others).
  4. Criminalization or severe restriction of privacy tools: Bans, licensing requirements, or effective blocks on VPNs, Tor, end-to-end encryption, or anonymity networks.
  5. Compelled disclosure and data-localization laws: Laws forcing companies to store data locally or hand it over to authorities without due process or international safeguards.
  6. Internet censorship and intermediary liability regimes: Laws that turn platforms and developers into state censors (EU Digital Services Act enforcement practices, India’s IT Rules, China’s Great Firewall architecture, etc.).
  7. Mandatory age verification and digital ID mandates: Any law requiring platforms, operating systems, app stores, websites, or services to implement government-approved age checks, identity verification, biometric estimation, parental linkage, or age-signal transmission—especially when banning anonymous/self-declared access, forcing data collection, or creating liability for non-compliance (Brazil’s Digital ECA / Law 15.211/2025, US state-level porn-site laws in 25+ states, California’s Digital Age Assurance Act, similar proposals targeting social media / OS-level gating in multiple jurisdictions).

Prohibited Jurisdictions

Any country, state, province, or supranational entity that currently maintains any law falling into the above categories is declared hostile to digital freedom.

Current non-exhaustive list (updated by project maintainers as needed):

China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India, Brazil, Australia, United Kingdom, United States (federal level via FISA/CLOUD Act, Digital Age Assurance Act, and similar laws), and any EU member state actively enforcing or expanding Chat Control / mass-retention rules.

We do not negotiate with these regimes. We do not provide them tools. We do not accept their money, their contributions, or their “compliance.”

Every line of code released under this manifesto and license is a deliberate act of resistance.

If you live under one of these regimes and you still want to use the software for personal, non-state, non-corporate use that does not benefit the oppressive apparatus, you are welcome.

If you are a government employee, contractor, or entity acting on behalf of any prohibited jurisdiction — you are not.

Privacy is a human right.

Encryption is a human right.

Digital freedom is a human right.

Any law that says otherwise is idiotic and illegitimate.

We will not comply.

We will not apologize.

We will keep building.

— The Digital Freedom Resistance

Digital Freedom Defense License (DFDL) Version 1.0

Copyright (c) <YEAR> <YOUR NAME OR ORGANIZATION>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED...

=== ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS – DIGITAL FREEDOM DEFENSE CLAUSE ===

The permissions granted above are explicitly conditioned upon and limited by the following:

  1. **Prohibited Jurisdictions and Entities** No rights are granted to any natural person, legal entity, government body, or organization that is located in, registered in, controlled from, or acting for the benefit of any jurisdiction that engages in any of the idiotic laws condemned in the Manifesto (MANIFESTO.md, incorporated by reference).
  2. **Prohibited Uses** The Software may not be used, modified, distributed, deployed, or contributed to in any way that directly or indirectly benefits or assists any prohibited jurisdiction or entity listed or described in the Manifesto.
  3. **Automatic Termination** Any violation of the above restrictions immediately and permanently terminates all rights granted under this license. Continued use after violation constitutes copyright infringement.
  4. **Manifesto Supremacy** The Manifesto defines the current list of prohibited categories and jurisdictions. Project maintainers may update the Manifesto; such updates bind all users immediately upon publication in the repository.
  5. **No Circumvention** Any attempt to circumvent these restrictions (e.g., via proxies, shell companies, or third parties) is prohibited and voids the license.

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This license is a political and moral statement as much as a legal instrument. Its restrictions are intentional. Enforceability in any given court is secondary to the message: we refuse to arm digital tyrants.

For the avoidance of doubt, this license is NOT Open Source (OSI) compliant because it deliberately discriminates against certain jurisdictions. That is the entire point.

Take Action: Arm Your Repositories

You can support the resistance by adopting the Digital Freedom Defense License and making your uncompromising stance public. Refuse compliance. Here is how to apply the DFDL to your own software projects:

  1. Add the Manifesto: Create a file named MANIFESTO.md in the root of your repository and copy the full text of the Manifesto into it.
  2. Apply the License: Replace your existing OSI-compliant license with the DFDL. Save it as LICENSE.md in your project root, ensuring you update the Copyright year and owner name.
  3. Display Your Allegiance: Add the official project badges to the top of your README.md to signal to users, contributors, and hostile jurisdictions exactly where you stand.

README.md Badges

Digital Freedom Defense License MANIFESTO Resistance: Official

Copy and paste the following markdown snippet directly into your README.md file. These use Shields.io to generate dynamic SVG badges that match the resistance's colors:

[![Digital Freedom Defense License](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-DFDL-ff7b72.svg)](LICENSE.md)

[![MANIFESTO](https://img.shields.io/badge/MANIFESTO-2ea043.svg)](MANIFESTO.md)

[![Resistance: Official](https://img.shields.io/badge/Resistance-Official-2ea043.svg)](https://dfdl.codeberg.page)

Note: Ensure the file paths in the markdown brackets (LICENSE.md) and (MANIFESTO.md) match the actual filenames in your repository.