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Drafting GPL3

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the version-upgrades-are-hard dept.

johns writes "In an article released yesterday, Eben Moglen and Richard Stallman outline four purposes of the GPL, to explain the guideposts they will use in drafting GPL3: the GPL is a worldwide copyright license, the code of conduct for free software distributors, the constitution of the free software movement, and the literary work of RMS. They also make this commitment: 'The Foundation will, before it emits a first discussion draft, publicize the process by which it intends to gather opinions and suggestions.'"

1 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. I would like to see a "More L than LGPL" license by spitzak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes, I know RMS does not like this idea. But there does seem to be a lot of interest in making an "LGPL" that works the way users expect. In particular this means that you can statically-link with the library and release a closed-source version of the resulting program. Yet unlike the BSD license, you are not allowed to modify the library itself without releasing your modifications.

    This license serves two purposes: first it makes your library much more popular. And it should be very good for algorithims like OGG that want to be used by closed programs, by eliminating the risk of an incompatable and secret fork.

    Searching around I have seen many dozens of "exceptions to the GPL" to accomplish this, indicating that there are a lot of developers that want this. A standardized version would be very useful, with a name as recognizable as "LGPL" and "BSD".

    Attached is my version, which is based on wxWindows. Paragraph 2 is changed to make it clear that you must release changes to the library itself.

    Comments, anybody? What are the chances of an official version of this? As far as I can tell, the desire for this is the main force behind license proliferation.

    1. As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give
    permission for additional uses of the text contained in this release of the
    library as licenced under the FLTK Library Licence, applying either version 2
    of the Licence, or (at your option) any later version of the Licence as
    published by the copyright holders of version 2 of the Licence document.

    2. The exception is that you may use, copy, link, modify and distribute, under terms of your own choice, any works based on the library (including static linking), provided that the creation of this work does not require the modification of any of the source code of the library.

    3. Modifications to the source code of the library do not fall under this
    exception. However you may distribute the modified library under the normal
    terms of this license and then distribute a work using this modified library
    using this exception.

    4. If you copy code from files distributed under the terms of the GNU General
    Public Licence or the GNU Library General Public Licence into a copy of this
    library, as this licence permits, the exception does not apply to the code
    that you add in this way. To avoid misleading anyone as to the status of such
    modified files, you must delete this exception notice from such code and/or
    adjust the licensing conditions notice accordingly.

    5. If you write modifications of your own for this library, it is your choice
    whether to permit this exception to apply to your modifications. If you do
    not wish that, you must delete the exception notice from such code and/or
    adjust the licensing conditions notice accordingly.