| Samba to go GPLv3 |
Dec. 06, 2006
The proposed GPL version 3 has suffered the slings and arrows of outraged Linux developers, and its anti-patent provisions give companies the twitches, but one prominent open-source project, the Samba Team, is ready to switch to the new license as soon as it's approved.
By and large, Samba programmers have long approved of the proposed version 3 of the GNU GPL (General Public License). Indeed, well-known Samba Team member Jeremy Allison said, "I helped out in a small way in the very early drafting of the anti-DRM (Digital Rights Management) provisions."
It was at a GPLv3 symposium held at the University of New South Wales in Australia, though, that Samba founder, Andrew 'Tridge' Tridgell indicated that Samba would be switching to the new open-source license when it was released.
Allison confirmed that this was indeed Samba's plan, stating that "Yes, we're definitely going GPLv3 -- we've always said so. We're big supporters of the GPLv3 ideals."
This issue was recently highlighted by Samba when it objected to Novell's recent patent deal with Microsoft. Even Richard M. Stallman, author of the GPL, however, admits that the Novell/Microsoft patent agreement bends, but doesn't break either GPLv2 or the current draft of GPLv3.
That will not be the case, however, with the next draft of the GPLv3, which will block the kind of language used in the Novell/Microsoft agreement. Stallman explained, "We're going to say not just that if you receive the patent license, but if you have arranged any sort of patent licensing that is prejudicial among the downstream recipients, that that's not allowed. ... You have to make sure that the downstream recipients fully get the freedoms that they're supposed to have."
According to the GPL's maintainer, the FSF (Free Software Foundation), the Samba Team is the first major open-source group to commit to the GPLv3.
Simon Phipps, Sun's Chief Open-Source Officer, said that Sun might well support GPLv3 in the future. Writing in his blog, Phipps said, "The reason we did not choose to use the GPL v3 for the Java platform yet is because the GPL v3 is not ready to be used."
"However," Phipps continued, "as things stand I would be very surprised if the final GPL v3 was not an effective tool for some of the communities Sun sustains or will initiate in the future."
The final draft of the GPLv3 is expected to arrive in the beginning of January. If all goes well, it will be released on March 15, 2007.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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