GPL Versions 2 and 3 Will Co-Exist for Some Time
The co-author of the General Public License, which governs the open-source software, has recently admitted that version 3 of the GPL and its previous version will have to co-exist.
He also indicated at the Linux World Conference that while version 3 of GPL is going to get accepted by the majority of the open-source software, version 2 will not be eliminated so soon.
“It is likely that the movement to GPL 3 will be swift and simple, but some projects will be GPL 2 only,” Eben Moglen said at the LinuxWorld. “There will be arrangements for the two licences to co-exist.”
One of the opponents of the new form of the GPL however is Linus Torvalds himself. The Free Software Foundation published a second draft of the GPL 3 in July. As a consequence of Torvalds’ opposition, Linux operating system will not switch to the new version, proposed by FSF.
Linus Torvalds stated repeatedly that he won’t convert Linux to version 3 of the General Public License, as he objects to digital rights management provisions in the proposed update.
His position is a significant- though not entirely unexpected- rejection of the update, the first to the seminal license in 15 years. Linux, the kernel at the heart of an operating system that clones much of generally proprietary Unix, is considered the best-known and most successful example of open-source software.
GPLv3 has been characterized by Torvalds as an un-necessary intrusion into the user’s hardware. Torvalds was quoted saying that GPLv3 “basically says, ‘We don’t want access just to your software modifications. We want access to your hardware, too.’ ”
“I don’t think it’s my place as a software developer to judge how hardware works around it.”
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Software Freedom Law Centre have launched since January a general debate over the new formula of GPL, and since then more than 1,000 open-source community members have expressed their concerns and opinions about it.
The last revision of GPL goes back to 1991, a very long time in the IT world, especially since the open-source trend has evolved so much.
“We have considered each suggestion with care,” said Eben Moglen, founder and chairman of the Software Freedom Law Centre, which represents various free software projects and is assisting the FSF in revising the new license.
“By listening to people from around the world, we are working toward a licence that acts consistently in many different legal systems and in a variety of situations.”
Richard Stallman, founder of the FSF and original author of the GPL, added: “The primary purpose of the GNU GPL is to preserve users’ freedom to use, share and modify free software. We depend on public review to make the GPL do this job reliably.”
Following the January release of GPLv3 Draft 1, Torvalds stated publicly that he didn’t expect the Linux kernel, a key component of the operating system, would move to GPLv3 given the limitations of the proposed DRM provisions. His position hasn’t changed after reviewing the new second draft.
“I don’t actually see any real fundamental changes there, and it all seems to boil down to the same meaning in the end,” Torvalds wrote Friday in an e-mail interview. “The FSF is trying to make some things no longer permissible under the GPLv3 that the GPLv2 left open, and I just happen to think that those things were better off being left open.”
The new draft clarifies that the license only directly restricts DRM in the special case in which it is used to prevent people from sharing or modifying GPLv3-covered software.
The clarified DRM section preserves the spirit of the original GPL which forbids adding additional ‘unfree’ restrictions to free software.
GPLv3 does not prohibit the implementation of DRM features, but prevents them from being imposed on users in a way that they cannot remove. gpl gpl3 gplv3
This entry was posted on Monday, August 21st, 2006 at 9:25 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
