Controversy Swirls Around Changes in GPLv3
As the Free Software Foundation prepares to release the third discussion draft on the GNU General Public License on March 28, the question being asked is whether the move to block future deals like the controversial one between Microsoft and Novell will forever doom the license.
Open-source evangelist and developer Bruce Perens confirmed to eWEEK on March 27 that GPLv3 does contain a provision that blocks deals like the one between Novell and Microsoft, and explained how it would work.
"If any entity that distributes the software arranges to protect a particular group from patents regarding that software, it must protect everyone. This mends the loophole exploited in the Novell-Microsoft agreement without being discriminatory or unfair," Perens said.
But Linux-Watch editor Steven Vaughan-Nichols, who has talked to many lawyers about this, reports that "their informal consensus is that getting clauses into GPLv3 that will block similar deals from happening in the future, while avoiding cutting legitimatize software patents uses off at the knees, is going to be almost impossible."
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re: GPLv3
Luckily, with their proven track record of being paced by turtles, snails, glaciers, tectonic plates, etc - it's a problem we can pass down to our
childrengrandchildren and let them worry about it.