Either quotes have been deliberately taken out of context, or the author has updated the license. It now reads:
By using this Software or storing this program or parts of it on a computer hard drive (or other media), you are agreeing to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement. You represent and warrant that you will not violate any of the requirements of this Agreement and further represent and warrant that:
You will not, and will not permit others to:
1) reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, derive the source code of, modify, or create derivative works from this Software, or
2) copy, distribute, publicly display, or publicly perform content contained in this Software other than as expressly authorized by this Agreement.
You will not use this Software to engage in or allow others to engage in any illegal activity.^
You will not engage in using this Software that will interfere with or damage the operation of the services of any third parties by overburdening/disabling network resources through automated queries, excessive usage or similar conduct.*
You will not sell this Software or charge others for use of it (either for profit or merely to recover your media and distribution costs) whether as a stand-alone product, or as part of a compilation or anthology, without explicit prior written permission.
You will not use this Software to engage in any activity that will violate the rights of third parties, including, without limitation, through the use, public display, public performance, reproduction, distribution, or modification of communications or materials that infringe copyrights, trademarks, publicity rights, privacy rights, other proprietary rights, or rights against defamation of third parties.
You may not claim any sponsorship by, endorsement by, or affiliation with me.
Does that seem like a reasonable license to you? Admittedly, it doesn't matter, because these authors don't have the resources to hire lawyers from abroad, but all this stuff about "illegal activity"? This is a git client. It gives us no functionality that does not already exist in git. What am I going to do, rob a convenience store with it? Why would the author care if I did? Why are the terms more onerous than those of git itself?
Even in the US, it's common to have clauses about specific illegal activity, such as breaking embargoes or similar. For example, you might be banned from using the software in, or cooperating with someone located in, Iran. You could do both of those with a git client.
This is more generally phrased than the very lawyer-written EULAs you generally find, but it's not unreasonable or unprecedented.
Assuming for the sake of argument that I'm not supposed to collaborate with someone in some particular place... why again do the authors of these clients care about that? Are the black-bag squad going to disappear them because they didn't warn us to be good? Actually the charitable interpretation is probably that this is a sort of cargo-culted license without much informed decision-making behind it.
Embargoes and sanctions have no ethical force behind them anyway. They are merely a way to harm poor people while ginning up more pretexts for more wars. Anyone who can oppose such monstrosities using git should do so.
Rather than protecting themselves, it's more likely that the author of the software desires that their software is only used for legal or ethical purposes, and that clause is their attempt to require that.
It's fair for a software author to not want their software used to make the world worse. I think you have a very different interpretation of "charitable interpretation" than I do.
As for embargoes - sure. It's just an example. There are plenty of other less morally ambiguous things too.
It would be within my rights to repeatedly batter my own head with a hammer. It would not seem reasonable, however. Most of the thinking behind this license is of the cargo-cult variety, and these valiant defenses of developers' rights are just silly.
If I cared about a git client for these platforms, I would file a bug about the license. Fortunately that is not the case.
By using this Software or storing this program or parts of it on a computer hard drive (or other media), you are agreeing to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement. You represent and warrant that you will not violate any of the requirements of this Agreement and further represent and warrant that:
You will not, and will not permit others to:
1) reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, derive the source code of, modify, or create derivative works from this Software, or
2) copy, distribute, publicly display, or publicly perform content contained in this Software other than as expressly authorized by this Agreement.
You will not use this Software to engage in or allow others to engage in any illegal activity.^
You will not engage in using this Software that will interfere with or damage the operation of the services of any third parties by overburdening/disabling network resources through automated queries, excessive usage or similar conduct.*
You will not sell this Software or charge others for use of it (either for profit or merely to recover your media and distribution costs) whether as a stand-alone product, or as part of a compilation or anthology, without explicit prior written permission.
You will not use this Software to engage in any activity that will violate the rights of third parties, including, without limitation, through the use, public display, public performance, reproduction, distribution, or modification of communications or materials that infringe copyrights, trademarks, publicity rights, privacy rights, other proprietary rights, or rights against defamation of third parties.
You may not claim any sponsorship by, endorsement by, or affiliation with me.