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GPL 3.0 Rewrite Drive Is No Democracy
linumax writes "Users will be free to comment on the upcoming complex and technical draft versions of the GNU General Public License 3.0 in an easy way, according to Eben Moglen, general counsel for the Free Software Foundation. However, Moglen said Wednesday, speaking at the Open Source Business Conference here, the rewrite of the GPL is not an election and there will be no voting on its clauses. In a session entitled GPL 3.0: Directions, Implications, Casualties, Moglen said that when GPL 2.0 was promulgated some 14 years ago, very few people cared about it. On the advice of a few dozen people and a couple of lawyers, it was written and released. "That was a fine system then. It is not a fine system now. I expect the process around GPL 3.0, when it begins in some 60 to 90 days' time, to collect a great deal of comment from people on the draft documents... ", He said."
Everybody knows those GNU people are a bunch of Commies. :)
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
does that mean that the GPL is *NOT* open source? (you can see but you can't touch)?
But... I thought... GPL... open... *HEAD EXPLODES*
When I saw this article I thought there was some new GPLed DVD R/W drive or something.
Most of us here on slashdot have an opinion on what should be going on in the GPL, but obviously most of us are not lawyers. This is, without a doubt, a legal matter, and this thing needs to be airtight. I wouldn't want this thing to be a true democracy, but hopefully they will be willing to listen to a little input here and there.
This obsession people seem to have with democracy is silly. Do doctors and nurses in the operating room vote on how to proceed with an operation? Should pilots ask for a vote on how to land a plane?
There are plenty of things democracy is good for, but sometimes you have to leave decisions in the hands of people more qualified than the average person.
This is on my software. If I dont like GPL 3.0, and dont want my software distributed under it, I'm already screwed.
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Well, then you should't have included the clause "or .. any later version". Pleanty of software is GLP 1 or 2, but lacks that clause. If you diddnt want to leav open the possibility that somehow a third party could screw you, then you shouldn't have included that clause.
Sucks to be you
I for one welcome our GNU GPL overlords.
No, seriously, they are smart people and I trust they will do a good job. In the unlikely event that I don't like what they've written I won't use it for my projects.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Each version of the GPL won't take rights away from the original author (that's pretty much, literally impossible.) it just defines how the author designates that others can use it. In the case of saying "v1 or later" you let anyone use v1 of the license if they darn well so please.
Yes, but that choice is left up to the viewer if you specify "or later".
This means that if the GPL review board goes insane and the GPL v3.0 does away with the "must provide source code" clauses, your program can suddenly be locked up in commercial software and any improvements made not given back to the community. You will be legally powerless to do anything about this since, even though you retain copyright, you have licenced the software for use with anything that calls itself "GPL", even if it's completely different to good old GPL 1.0.
Is that really what you want? If so, why not just go for a BSD licence?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife