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Free Software Foundation Begins Rewriting the GPL

Posted by Zonk on from the dust-off-that-language dept.

Robert writes "The first update to the GNU General Public License in 15 years has begun. Details about the process and guidelines by which it will be updated by the Free Software Foundation, and the free/open source community at large, are now available. The FSF has announced plans to release the first draft of the new license for comment at a conference to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in mid-January 2006." From the article: "This is the first time the GPL has been open to a public development process. Stallman created version 1 himself in 1985 and introduced version 2 in 1991 after taking legal advice and collecting developer opinion. The rapid adoption of Linux and hundred of other software products licensed under the GPL makes the development of GPLv3 a significant event, and one that is now likely to involve some of the biggest vendors in the industry, with Hewlett-Packard, Novell, and Red Hat already having declared their intention to participate."

7 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. The largest amendment to this new draft... by slughead · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... are the words "no, seriously."

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    Latewire
    1. Re:The largest amendment to this new draft... by krgallagher · · Score: 4, Funny
      "The largest amendment to this new draft..."

      The requirement that all free software be called GNU/Software.

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      Insert Generic Sig Here:

  2. Re:Software Patents... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, it's fairly easy to address them. Just use the address of the Patent Office.

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    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  3. Re:My First Question by Cecil · · Score: 2, Funny

    Congratulations, you're ridiculous and have completely missed the point.

    You can write code in RMS's editor, Emacs, without having to put it under the GPL.

    He's not interested in "restricting your freedom" (if that's what you choose to feel like the GPL does) to do whatever the hell you want with your own code. He's interested in restricting your freedom" to do whatever the hell you want with HIS CODE.

    If you don't want the GPL to 'infect' your application, then DON'T USE GPL'D CODE. Write it yourself, you lazy ass.

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    Random and weird software I've written.
  4. Re:Well I *do* ... by Risen888 · · Score: 2, Funny

    *looking over lease*
    Hey, wait a goddamned minute here!

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    Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
  5. Re:GPLv3 should bing a provision on fork limitatio by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Why do people think forks are bad?

    I wasn't aware they did - they work much better than chopsticks for most Westerners, for instance...

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    That is all.
  6. Come on, editors! by ccharles · · Score: 2, Funny

    How about explaining what the GPL is? Geez... give us some background to go on...