It's a little bit silly imnsho, and it's because JSMin exists to minify JavaScript, which is generally divorced from direct "evil".

And what "evil" developer is going to respect that clause in the license? They wouldn't be evil then...

Except this clause is completely and utterly meaningless, legally.

I have trouble seeing anyone, anywhere, ever, enforcing it.

It actually has a great use:

Do the Debian legal people annoy you? Then why not release your software unlicensed; they won't be 'able' to use it and other users who care less will. Ah, but that isn't much fun... why not rile them up as well? Enter the "do no evil" clause! By being 'open source' in such a way that they cannot use their software, you can apparently cause a decent amount of grief.

They also seem to be good for getting amusing quips like "IBM requested an exception so that they can do evil with my software".

Do no evil clauses are great for trolling. An anti-corporate and anti-'takes-themselves-seriously' license.

Sure, trolling. There is a great use of the legal system. Oh wait ....

Hardly even a use of the legal system, the clause would not stand up for one second. What is really being used is the victims attitudes toward the legal system.

It sort of seems like this license may bother you. It really is good at this.

Well, it concerned IBM enough to ask Crockford for an exception: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hCimLnIsDA

So did we, because it's not really open source, and most distributions won't accept stuff that uses it (fedora, debian, etc). Thus, if you want to use it in anything open source that you actually want packaged, you need an exception.

Your good and evil are not necessarily (almost certainly) not mine.

Sure, but you could come up with a license that's more specific, like "The Software shall not by used by any government agency or contractors for surveillance purposes" or whatever the equivalent legal speak is.

So, I can't use this computer vision library as part of my government program to prevent Rhino poaching in Africa?

You could if you asked the author and they agreed to give you a different license.

It's hardly free/open source software if you need to get a license from the author for each specific usage. Even MS treats their customers better than that.

You don't need a license for each specific usage. Most software doesn't involve surveillance, and most government surveillance software would probably not be an "exception" in the author's eyes. Rhino surveillance is an obscure edge case.