Free Software Foundation releases GPLv3

More than 15 applications have been covered by the new licence

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has officially released the third version of the General Public Licence (GPLv3). 

More than 15 applications have been covered by the new licence, including components that ship as part of the Linux operating system. 

The licence has taken 18 months to draft, during which time the FSF and the Software Freedom Law Center sought extensive feedback from open source developers, users and vendors.

"By hearing from so many different groups in a public drafting process we have been able to write a licence that successfully addresses a broad spectrum of concerns," said Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF.

"But even more importantly, these different groups have had an opportunity to find common ground on important issues facing the free software community today. "

Brown lashed out against products such as the TiVo personal video recorder and the Trusted Computing Platform.

TiVo runs Linux and fully complies with the GPL by providing developers with a copy of the source code. But the hardware is designed to shut down if it detects any changes to the software.

This practice renders the availability of the source code useless, according to the FSF, and it is therefore banned under the GPLv3.

The Trusted Computing Platform is an encryption chip that can be used to enforce digital rights management (DRM) technologies. The GPLv3 seeks to outlaw the technology by allowing developers to remove DRM if they wish to.

The GPLv3 will also ban patent licensing deals such as the one signed between Microsoft and Novell in November.

Linux founder Linus Torvalds has denounced the FSF's standpoints on the DRM and TiVo issues, which he has described as "religious". 

"I still think GPLv2 is simply the better licence," Torvalds wrote in a posting to the Linux Kernel Developer mailing list in June.

But Torvalds has also indicated that he might choose to switch to the GPLv3 if doing so would allow the operating system to adopt the ZFS file system developed by Sun Microsystems.

Sun has been much more positive about the GPLv3. The company's chief open source officer, Simon Phipps, welcomed the licence in a blog posting, but would not commit to using it just yet. 

"The question I'm expecting to face repeatedly over the next few weeks is whether Sun will use the GPLv3. I think it is likely we will use it, but I am not yet clear for which code and when," wrote Phipps.

"We will be carefully analysing the balance of benefits and risks in the released version of the GPLv3, and I am not expecting to be in a position to bring a recommendation to our executive team for several weeks."