The amount of engineering rigor that has gone into sqlite over the years boggles the mind. It's a project that has been held up as a sterling example of successful software development many times, rightfully so. I especially like this part of their license, from the top of sqlite3.h
"The author disclaims copyright to this source code. In place of
a legal notice, here is a blessing:
May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give."
It was originally designed to run on guided missile destroyers in the US Navy. Not sure if it was ever used for that, but it explains the scrupulous attention to testing.
If you are building a guided missle or the destroyer it launches from, you are doing so because you believe it to be good and not evil to have a strong military defense. And the best defense is a good offense or something like that, I don't really follow sports.
It wouldn't be in contrast to anything. Destroying a guided missile is probably an act of self defence, hence likely to be considered good by the author.
It's a blessing, not an obligation or a demand or a condition of use.
Unlike the JSON license clause "The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil", the SQLite blessing doesn't put any restriction on your "freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0)" or on any of the other freedoms listed by the FSF.
It's no different from putting this in a library:
# This work is dedicated to the public domain.
# I hope you enjoy using it!
No one could argue that if you didn't enjoy using the library (maybe the API is a confusing mess) you would somehow be in violation of the license.
p.s. I upvoted your comment because I think you raised an interesting point!
The quote explicitly "disclaims copyright" and includes the blessing "in place of a legal notice". It would be truly absurd even for a lawyer to believe that the blessing constitutes a copyright license anyway.
I wouldn't call this license free either. In many jurisdictions there is no concept of "public domain", in some you cannot even disclaim copyright at all. In those cases the work would be under copyright still, and in absence of a license permitting you to copy and change and distribute it, you can't (theoretically. no one's going to sue you).
"The author disclaims copyright to this source code. In place of a legal notice, here is a blessing: May you do good and not evil. May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others. May you share freely, never taking more than you give."