| GPL version 3 arrives |
Jun. 29, 2007
As expected, the FSF (Free Software Foundation) released the long-awaited GPLv3 (GNU General Public License version 3), the third generation of the world's most popular free software license.
"Since we founded the free software movement, over 23 years ago, the free software community has developed thousands of useful programs that respect the user's freedom," said Richard Stallman, the founder and president of the FSF during a noon EDT online presentation. "The programs are in the GNU/Linux operating system, as well as personal computers, telephones, Internet servers, and more. Most of these programs use the GNU GPL to guarantee every user the freedom to run, study, adapt, improve, and redistribute the program."
According to the FSF, the GPLv3 strengthens this guarantee, by ensuring that users can modify the free software on their personal and household devices, and granting patent licenses to every user. It also extends compatibility with other free software licenses and increases international uniformity.
Jeremy Allison, a Google employee and member of the Samba team, which has long been a GPLv3 supporter, stated on Samba's behalf that he sees the new license as "a great improvement on the older GPL," and that it is "a necessary update to deal with the new threats to free software that have emerged since version 2 of the GPL."
The FSF also stated that "The warm embrace of much of the community should come as no surprise, for the license is the final result of an unprecedented drafting process that has seen four published drafts in eighteen months."
Other open source advocates, notably Linus Torvalds and many of Linux's other core developers, find the GPLv3 unacceptable. James E.J. Bottomley, CTO of Steeleye and Linux kernel developer, recently gave a "Tip of the hat to the FSF," adding that "they listened to our [Linux developers] complaints about the license." Still, he doesn't see it changed enough, and therefore expects that "The universe will be GPLv2 and GPLv3. The kernel will be GPLv2, the tool-chain (the FSF-created development tools) will be GPLv3."
The FSF, however, even without the support of the single most important open-source project -- Linux -- tries to paint the new license in the rosiest colors possible. "By hearing from so many different groups in a public drafting process, we have been able to write a license that successfully addresses a broad spectrum of concerns. But even more importantly, these different groups have had an opportunity to find common ground on important issues facing the free software community today, such as patents [story], TiVoization [story], and Treacherous [aka, "Trusted"] Computing," said Peter Brown, the FSF's executive director in a statement.
Karl Berry, long-time GNU developer and Texinfo maintainer, believes that "the GPL is the fundamental license that ties the free software community together, and version 3 does an excellent job of updating the license to the present-day computing reality."
Over fifteen GNU programs will be released under the new license today, and the entire GNU Project will follow suit in the coming months, according to the FSF. The FSF will also encourage adoption of the license through education and outreach programs. "A lot of time and effort went into this license. Now free programs must adopt it so as to offer their users its stronger protection for their freedom," said Stallman
Stallman and Eben Moglen, well known intellectual property lawyer and for many years the legal counsel for the FSF, began revising the GPL for version 3 in 2005. Beginning in January of 2006, the FSF began a systematic process of public review and feedback, with legal advice and organizational support from the Software Freedom Law Center.
The final GPLv3 license is published at the FSF website. As had been predicted, there were no significant changes from the last draft.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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