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Douglas Crockford: The JSON Saga

YUI Library · 81.3K views · 2011-08-28 · 49:26

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Overview

Douglas Crockford tells how JSON was discovered rather than invented, and how its simplicity made it a dominant data interchange format. He also covers surrounding history such as earlier Netscape usage and the 'Good, not Evil' license story.

On Hacker News

HN commenters cite it as Crockford's first-hand account of JSON's origins and of the no-evil license anecdote.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2012–2025

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What people said

Figs · 2019-09 · Recommendation

You may also get a chuckle out of an anecdote about the license that Douglas Crockford gave during one of this talks: [VIDEO]

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xrstf · 2016-08 · Recommendation

Because using certain keys could break your JavaScript (and JSON was designed to be a subset), like { delete: "me" } If you don't want to keep a list of known keywords around, just insisting on quotes is the easier way. [EDIT: See also this YouTube video, where Douglas Crockford explains it himself: [VIDEO] ]

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pcthrowaway · 2025-04 · Reference

> Personally I don’t like the idea of releasing content with a “use it if I like you “ clause. He’s free to keep it for his own personal use. And he's free to release it under whatever license he wants also. I don't like it as much as a free license either, but it's not my music, and IMO it's better than not granting use; there are of course many cases where people will feel comfortable using it (and in fact it has been used by many people already who have applied common sense to their usage of his work, and I don't believe he has sued anyone or revoked the license in the 18 years he's made it available under similar terms). I also release my code MIT or GPL even though I find it tempting to use less permissive licenses like the "Don't be evil" license of JSON[1] or JSLint[2] I would feel comfortable using Moby's music for lots of purposes personally. I feel like you are overthinking this, I don't think it's about what you believe in, it's about what you think Moby would approve of. If you wanted to release a video promoting veganism, you could obviously use his music (even if you're a democrat). If you wanted to release a video promoting the Democratic party, there's some chance he'd revoke the license (but almost no chance he could successfully sue you). Even if you were a far-right activist using his music for a video supporting an abortion ban, he wouldn't be able to sue you (because banning abortion isn't exclusively a right-wing position), but I expect he would revoke y

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Sources

Video by YUI Library, played through YouTube.

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