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First Draft of GPL Version 3 Released
njan writes "The first draft of version three of the GNU General Public License was released to the public this afternoon. Major improvements touted in version three include changes designed to mitigate the damage posed by new threats to free software such as software patents. One individual stated about the release: 'It is changes in law, not computer technology, that pose the principal challenges to the free software community. Chief among these changes has been the unwise and ill-considered application of patent law to software. Software patents threaten every free software project, just as they threaten proprietary software and custom software. Any program can be destroyed or crippled by a software patent belonging to someone who has no other connection to the program.'"
Because the GPL is one of the /. sacred cows, like Linux itself. Speaking out against it is like, well, speaking out agaist the American government. You're not with us so you must be a Microsoft shill and the mod point for that are not pretty!
I am seriously waiting for Stallman to get a hair cut and start acting like Stalin, he's slowly growing his list of enemies and each time people seem to be less and less alarmed by is crazed behaviour.
When Linus dies and Stallman takes a greater control of the Free Software nutters, well, then we'll see how deep the madness of this man goes. The Users' Revolution will probably not be as bloody, but it will be just as good for the Users as Stalin's leadership of the People was.
I'm sick of following my dreams - I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
Maybe you're a big fuckin' moron who talks about things he doesn't understand. Go ask any lawyer whether you are legally allowed to patch software you are not the copyright owner of and they will tell you it is creating a derivative work which is not permitted by copyright law. Now shut your pie hole.
How we know is more important than what we know.
> I don't understand why people on Slashdot insist upon arguing with a lawyer about the law.
The Free Software community has created it's own industry of non-lawyers who come to hypothetical conclusions about court cases that haven't happened yet, and then treat them as legal fact. In other words, it's not really slashdot, but just the entire folk-lore that has surrounded the GPL since RMS started pontificating.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
May I also remind you that not everyone lives in the US. We don't all have a fair use doctrine to hide behind :(
And may I remind you that most of the posters here on Slashdot do. How you got the idea that we all live in your little backwater of the planet is beyond me. Certainly made you like like an idiot, though.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
And USians wonder why the rest of the world hates them.
Hey, kimosabe, you're the one who made yourself look like a fucking idiot to the entire slashdot audience. Perhaps the person who should "shut his pie hole" is the one who keeps sticking his foot in it.
And that's "Americans", for the Webster-deprived. Only sexually frustrated teen Eurotrash actually think that "USian" is a word.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?