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GPL to be Modified to Penalize Patents and DRM

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the license-to-chill dept.

null etc. writes "MSNBC is running an article about how upcoming changes to the GPL will retaliate against companies that patent software or produce DRM'ed products. "Software patents are clearly a menace to society and innovation. We like this to be more explicit. The basic idea is that if someone patents software, he loses the right to use free software. It's like a patent retaliation clause.""

3 of 665 comments (clear)

  1. Read the article, not the headline... by HotNeedleOfInquiry · · Score: 5, Informative

    Stallman will write a draft version of the new GPL by December, after which it will be evaluated by thousands of organizations, software developers and software users in 2006.

    The draft version may contain a proposal to penalize those companies which use digital rights management (DRM) software which protects songs and films against piracy, and which is seen as an anomaly by the free software association.

    So it appears that what the article quotes as fact is something in RMS's head that may or may not end up on paper and then may or may not become a new license. Sensationalism at it's best.

    --
    "Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
  2. MSNBC article is obsolete, misquotes the FSF by FlorianMueller · · Score: 5, Informative

    The MSNBC article is based on the first version of the Reuters report, which misquotes the FSF on the provisions concerning software patents. Reuters has meanwhile updated the story. Here's a few links to the new and corrected version of the story:
    Washington Post
    eWeek
    Reuters.com

  3. Misquotes Managed -- see The Register by alanQuatermain · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Register had a story on this earlier in the day, complete with a clarification from FSF Europe president Georg Greve:

    Reuters quoted him as saying that anyone who patented software would be prevented from using free software. Greve says this is not quite what he was getting at:

    "The basic idea is that if someone uses software patents against a Free Software program under the GPL, he might lose the right to distribute that particular software, to use it for their products. We have no interest in restricting the way people can use and develop software."

    So, not "companies using software patents lose rights to GPL software," more like "if a company uses patents to attack $GPL_SOFT_PACKAGE, they forfeit rights to $GPL_SOFT_PACKAGE". Sounds fairly reasonable to me. If you want to use the software, agree that you won't use patents to kill it off, whilst internally nabbing the copyrighted code for your own (redistributed) products.

    -Q