Coming Soon to a Kernel Near You: GPL 3

[mandy]

The Free Software Foundation is just weeks away from announcing the roadmap and process that will govern the release of the first draft of the rewritten GNU General Public License.

The first draft of GPL version 3 is expected early next year...

full article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1879114,00.asp

info on what is likely to be in the rewritten license:

With a relatively hostile environment that has pitted proprietary software against open source as a backdrop, the Free Software Foundation, the steward of the GNU General Public License, is working on the first revamp to the license in 13 years.

he changes planned for the next release, Version 3, a draft of which is due next year, focus on several broad topics that reflect the dynamic change in the software industry since the early 1990s—intellectual property licensing and patent issues, the question of how to deal with software used over a network, and concerns around trusted computing.

full article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1730102,00.asp

[mandy]

Draft 1 of the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 3 was released on 16 January 2006

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Discussion Draft 1 of Version 3, 16 Jan 2006

THIS IS A DRAFT, NOT A PUBLISHED VERSION OF THE GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.

Copyright © 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. We,
the Free Software Foundation, use the GNU General Public License for
most of our software; it applies also to any other program whose
authors commit to using it. (Some Free Software Foundation software
is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.) You
can apply it to your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make requirements that forbid
anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.

Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1)
assert copyright on the software, and (2) offer you this License which
gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

For the developers' and author's protection, the GPL clearly explains
that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is
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are told that what they have is not the original, so that any problems
introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors'
reputations.

Some countries have adopted laws prohibiting software that enables users
to escape from Digital Restrictions Management. DRM is fundamentally
incompatible with the purpose of the GPL, which is to protect users'
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Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents. We
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be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.

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If conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
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a consequence you may not distribute it at all. For example, if a patent
license would not permit royalty-free redistribution by all those who
receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you
could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from
distribution.

It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
patents or other exclusive rights or to contest their legal validity.
The sole purpose of this section is to protect the integrity of the
free software distribution system. Many people have made generous
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[13.[8] Geographical Limitations.

If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain
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explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries,
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NO WARRANTY

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18. Unless specifically stated, the Program has not been tested for use
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END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs

If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.

To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.


Copyright ©

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA


Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.

If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short
notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:

Gnomovision version 69, Copyright © year name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.

The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may
be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; for a GUI interface,
you would use an "About box" instead.

You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:

Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.

, 1 April 1989
Rich R. Thanus, Peripheral Visionary

For more information on how to apply and follow the GNU GPL, see
http://www.gnu.org/licenses.

The GNU General Public License does not permit incorporating your program
into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you
may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with
the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Lesser General
Public License instead of this License.

[Kristijntje]

Linux founder rejects GPL v3

Linux founder Linus Torvalds has spoken out against the proposed changes in the forthcoming version 3 of the General Public License that governs the operating system. "The Linux kernel is under the GPL version 2. Not anything else," he said.

The proposed update for the license takes on digital rights management by requiring that software developers refrain from using DRM copyright protection in combination with any GPL3 product. This would prevent device manufacturers such as TiVo and Linksys from using Linux to power their digital video recorders or media adapters.

full article: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Kjvxsd...inux.xhtml

[mandy]

A related article and interview with Linux creator Linus Torvalds:

Fans of open source software have been buzzing since Linus Torvalds, creator of the popular Linux operating system, indicated he wouldn't adopt a new version of the license under which Linux is distributed. Torvalds' opinion matters because his program is by far the most popular open source program in the world.

The new version of the GNU General Public License, or GPLv3 as it is known, was authored by Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman and adds new restrictions to the license. Torvalds isn't crazy about the new rules but says he still might sign on if changes are made...

full article: http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/03...alds1.html

[mandy]

Update: Linux inventor Linus Torvalds remains critical of GPv3.

The second draft of a revised General Public License has been released, but Linus Torvalds--founder and leader of the best-known software project governed by the GPL--remains unconvinced of its merits.

Torvalds' concern is with the clause in the GPLv3 second draft regarding digital rights management (DRM) technology, which puts controls on how computers can run software or supply content such as movies or music.

Whereas the GPL version 2 was a basic "quid pro quo" arrangement that required anyone modifying source code to make the changes public, the draft of GPLv3 extends much further, Torvalds argued...

full article: http://news.com.com/Torvalds+critical+of...g=nefd.top

Linus Torvalds had harsh comments about the committees organized by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to help it draft version 3 of the GNU Public License (GPLv3). However, so far as NewsForge can determine, none of those actually involved in the process agree with Torvalds' assessment that the FSF isn't listening to feedback.

Shortly after the second draft of the GPLv3 was released, Torvalds was quoted in a story by Stephen Shankland as saying "The FSF doesn't even seem interested in any feedback. They set up several 'committees' to get comments from various industry players, and everything I've heard about the process is that they then ignored them all and did what they wanted anyway."...

full article: http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/06/08...ml?tid=147&tid=138

The GPLv3 web site: http://gplv3.fsf.org/
current draft of the GPL: http://gplv3.fsf.org/draft

[mandy]

Business Week has an article on the battle over GPLv3 license terms

Disagreements over what should be included in the free software license's next version have pitted the movement's leaders against each other

Say the letters G, P, and L in that order around most folks and you're likely to be met with a blank stare. But try dropping them around the open-source crowd, especially in proximity to San Francisco this mid-August, and you'll get a very different response: everything from fist-pumping to hand-wringing.

... the impetus to make a profit (and its associated compromises) isn't sitting well with true believers in free software. And the resulting rifts were apparent at last week's LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco. On one side is Richard Stallman and his Free Software Foundation. When Stallman says "free" he doesn't mean price, he means freedom. He believes all software should be freely available to be modified by the public. And for him, this is nothing short of a moral fight....

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/c...977941.htm

[Kristijntje]

The latest development in the GPL v3 debate:

MySQL changes license to avoid GPLv3

Here’s an announcement that almost got drowned out by festive cheer: MySQL has changed the license it uses for its open source database management system to avoid being forced to move to the forthcoming GPL v3.

Kaj Arno, MySQL VP of community relations, revealed the license change on his blog, on December 22, noting that the license for MySQL 5.0 and 5.1 had changed from "GPLv2 or later" to "GPLv2 only". As he explained, this was “in order to make it an option, not an obligation for the company to move to GPLv3”...

full article: http://www.businessreviewonline.com/os/a...ges_l.html

[mandy]

A related article:

The official release of the third version of the GNU General Public License (GPLv3) is still a couple of months away, yet already, the misunderstandings about it are almost as numerous as those for the second version (GPLv2).

Some of these misunderstandings are due to the lengthy and public revision process for GPLv3, which offers plenty of opportunity for rumors and misreadings. Others may be due to the extensive rewriting of several key sections of GPLv3, notably the language on patents and TiVoization, during the process, so that people are concerned about issues from earlier drafts that the current one corrects or addresses. Still others seem due to willful misunderstandings by opponents of free and open source software. Perhaps, too, the fact that GPLv3 is more obviously a legal document in structure and content than GPLv2 adds to the confusion. But, whatever the origins of the misunderstandings, many have gained currency in both the media and some parts of the free and open source software community.

To separate the confusions and half-truths from the reality, we went to the source: members of the Free Software Foundation (FSF)...and the Software Freedom Law Center..., who is one of the main drafters of the new license. Taken together, their comments help to create a clearer picture of the goals behind GPLv3 and the final form that the license will probably take...

full article: http://www.itmanagersjournal.com/feature/23144

[Kristijntje]

GPLv3 has been officially released: http://gplv3.fsf.org/
GPLv3: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
LGPGv3: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.html

The release comes after 18 months of intensive public consultation, and another couple of years of internal planning by the FSF before that. In a move unprecedented in both the free software and legal communities, the FSF, together with the Software Freedom Law Center, convened four committees consisting of more than 50 community and corporate representatives to help write the license. Comments from the public were solicited at meetings around the world, and on a site where anyone could add their thoughts on the text of the license. The actual license was written primarily by Eben Moglen and Richard Fontana of the Software Freedom Law Center, with input from Stallman and experts such as David Turner, former compliance engineer at the FSF...

full article: http://www.linux.com/feature/115650