First draft of GPL v3 goes online
/v3-uk/news/1980911/first-draft-gpl-goes-online
17 Jan 2006, Iain Thomson , V3
The Free Software Foundation has released the first draft of the General Public Licence (GPL) version 3 for debate.
This is the first major change to the GPL in over a decade and addresses two fundamental concerns for the industry: digital rights management and software patents.
The changes require GPL users to shield those using the code from patent disputes, and bans the use of DRM software in finished products.
"When you distribute a covered work you grant a patent licence to the recipient, and to anyone that receives any version of the work, permitting, for any and all versions of the covered work, all activities allowed or contemplated by this licence, such as installing, running and distributing versions of the work," states the draft.
"This patent licence is non-exclusive, royalty-free and worldwide, and covers all patent claims you control or have the right to sub-licence, at the time you distribute the covered work or in the future, that would be infringed or violated by the covered work or any reasonably contemplated use of the covered work."
Members of the public can post their comments for consideration here.
Do you agree?
You can not give away what is not yours
Somewhere in the GPL and other free/open source licenses, it needs to be made explictly clear that the license does *not* give you permission to give away intellectual property that you do not own. Moreover, no practical license should require you to reveal proprietary information as a condition for using the licensed software. That is too big a price to pay for the privilege of using free software, no matter how high its quality.
I believe the GPL and even the LGPL in fact do this, and that the new version does not change this.
Posted by M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, 17 Jan 2006