Distributors lose their rights when they violate GPLv2, but the Free
Software Foundation is more forgiving in its license enforcement to
encourage continued participation in the free software community.
GPLv3 has improved termination provisions to codify this approach,
giving developers one more reason to upgrade.
Thanks to Android's commercial success, the kernel Linux, which is
released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2, is
being distributed more than ever before. Whenever someone distributes
GPL-covered software, they must follow a few conditions set forth in
the license. These conditions try to give anyone who receives the
software both the legal permission and the practical tools necessary
to change and share the software themselves if they wish.
Not all of the companies that distribute Android heed these
conditions. We've witnessed an uptick in GPL violation
reports--some convincing, others incomplete or
misinformed--against these vendors. We generally can't pursue
these violations directly, because only copyright holders can enforce
free software licenses in most countries, and few Android devices use
FSF-copyrighted code. However, people still seek out our opinions
about the relevant parts of the GPL, and that discussion has recently
turned to GPLv2's termination provisions. Section 4 of the license
says, "You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the
Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this
License."
When we enforce the license of FSF-copyrighted software, we give
violators back the rights they had after they come into compliance.
In our experience, developers of Linux are happy to do the same.
Unfortunately, even if we assume they all would restore these rights,
it would be extremely difficult to have them all formally do so; there
are simply too many copyright holders involved, some of whom haven't
worked on the project in years or even decades.
When we wrote GPLv2 in 1991, we didn't imagine that a free software
project might have hundreds of copyright holders, making it so
difficult to get a violator's rights restored. We want it to be easy
for a former violator to know that they're still allowed to change and
share the software; if they stop distribution because of legal
uncertainty, fewer people will have free software in the long run.
Hence, we created new termination provisions for GPLv3, in section 8
(see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html#section8>). These
terms offer violators a simple method to earn back the rights they
had. Parties who violate the license have their rights restored
provisionally as soon as they come back into compliance, and
permanently if no copyright holders terminate those rights within
sixty days of the last violation. Furthermore, first-time violators
will have their rights restored permanently if they come into
compliance within thirty days of receiving such notice.
GPLv3's approach has several advantages over GPLv2's. By having the
license grant forgiveness by default, instead of terminating rights
permanently, it better matches our community's expectations and normal
compliance strategy. It will be easier for violators to get their
rights restored by any copyright holders who do terminate rights,
because the notice will establish a clear way for the violator to get
in touch. Finally, GPLv3's termination provisions don't sacrifice
anything we need: the license's conditions still do their best to
protect software freedom, and copyright holders will still be able to
legally enforce the license against parties that don't comply.
This is just one of many reasons why GPLv3 is better than GPLv2. This
change has already given some companies the reassuring nudge they
needed to start distributing GPL-covered software, and we expect to
see more of that in the future. When we give distributors a chance to
rejoin the free software community and fix any mistakes they might
make--in stark contrast to most proprietary software licenses--we get
both compliance and more allies. GPLv3 improves on earlier versions
of the license by codifying that enforcement strategy. For this
reason and others, we urge developers who are releasing projects under
GPLv2 to upgrade to GPLv3. Companies that sell products that use
Android can help out by encouraging the developers of Linux to make
the switch to GPLv3.
To learn more about GPLv3's benefits, read our Quick Guide to GPLv3 at
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html>.
_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)fsf.org>
http://lists.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press
= FSFE Newsletter - August 2011 =
[Read online: http://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-201108.en.html ]
== Inside stories by a critical thinker ==
"If people do not understand why their computing is related to their
freedom, it’s because nobody explained them properly" (Bernhard
Reiter)
Bernhard Reiter is one of FSFE's founders and architect of the original
German team. He participated in setting up three important Free Software
organisations: FreeGIS.org, FFII, and FossGIS. Besides that, he is
founder and Executive Director of Intevation GmbH, a company with
exclusively Free Software products and services since 1999.
Interesting stories about setting up FSFE, challenges for Free Software,
and more are covered in this month's Fellowship interview[1].
1. http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=341
== Become a Critical Thinker: Get Rid of "Intellectual Property" ==
A lot of people talk about "intellectual property". When using this
term, they usually mix different things like copyright, patents,
trademarks, also right to a name, utility patents, business models, or
even geographical indications. If you want to think critically and
clearly about challenges in the digital age, you should separate those
different issues.
If you really need a term to cover all that, you should use one which is
not that much biased. There are some suggestions in the articles
mentioned below, like the term "Limited Intellectual Monopolies".
But in 90% cases there is actually only one monopoly concerned.
Discussions will be much more productive if everybody knows what you are
talking about. So, if someone says "we need more protection of
"intellectual property", ask them what that means, perhaps it means they
want to have software patents. If someone says "we need to limit the
scope of "intellectual property", you should ask if they want to
restrain copyright, patents or even abolish trademarks.
You can read more about this in Richard Stallman's article"Did You Say
'Intellectual Property'? It's a Seductive Mirage"[2], Georg
Greve's"Fighting intellectual poverty (Who owns and controls the
information societies?)"[3], and your editor's interview with Dradio
Wissen[4](in German).
2. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.en.html
3. http://fsfe.org/projects/wsis/issues.en.html
4. http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=810
== Support FSFE in critical thinking ==
For FSFE it is important that all of you support us. This way our work
does not depend on single donors, and we can continue to think and
communicate critical to promote software freedom.
It is now possible to donate us monthly and yearly[5]by*credit card*and
in Germany also by*direct debit*. Beside that, in the Netherlands
donations to FSFE can now be deducted from income tax (before it was
only possible in Germany and Switzerland). If we get more than 20 new
donors, your editor promises that he will not write the word "critical"
in the next newsletter.
5. http://fsfe.org/donate/donate.en.html
== Something completely different ==
- Richard Stallman wrote an article"Resist the Temptations of the
Cloud!"[6]( German version[7]) in the German Magazine "Spiegel".
- PDFreaders.org[8]. It is boring to follow up bugs, but it does not
take a lot of time and has a good effect. In Italy volunteers again
managed to close 13 bugs last month. Your editor gave two talks in
Brazil about the PDFreaders campaign[9]to motivate people to fix bugs
in Latin America, and our UK coordinator Sam Tuke is organising a
PDFreaders bug hunt in Manchester. If you live around, join other Free
Software advocates on Saturday, August 13, between 15.00-17.30 at
MadLab hackerspace[10]to find and remove UK Government adverts for
non-Free PDF Readers. Cake and Pizza provided!
- New German Free Software Business Association: Lisog (124 members) and
LIVE Linux-Verband (103 members) now merged into the Open Source
Business Alliance (OSBA)[11](German).
- FSFE will take part at the Desktop Summit, a joint conference
organised by the GNOME and KDE communities in Berlin, Germany, 6 - 12
August 2011 at the Humboldt University. Our president Karsten Gerloff
will give a talk on"Free desktops for Europe's public sector"[12]and
Bernhard Reiter will talk about"Daily Melee: paid people within Free
Software initiatives - How they tick, how to keep them and the art of
behaving if you are one"[13]. (All events are available on our event
page[14]and in the Fellowship calendar[15].
- From the planet aggregation[16]:
- CERN launched its Open Hardware License 1.1 and Open Hardware
Repository. IBM promised to give its Lotus Symphony source code to the
Apache Foundation, and W3C wants to invalidate Apple's Widget software
patents. Read the legal news from 27.6.-3.7.[17] 4.7.-10.7.[18], and
11.7.-18.7.[19].
- Brian Gough has announced the GNU Hackers meeting[20]which will take
place on 25. August – 28. August in Paris. There are about 45 GNU
maintainers and contributors registered so far and speakers include
Jim Meyering, Stefano Zacchiroli, and Jim Blandy.
- Why are students developing Free Software for the public sector? Read
in Guido Arnold's weblog[21]how students get involved in Free
Software.
6. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,775218,00.html
7. http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,774766,00.html
8. http://pdfreaders.org
9. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.en.html
10.
http://madlab.org.uk/content/stamp-out-the-ads-free-software-pdf-reader-spr…
11. http://www.linux-verband.de/news/detail/opensource/pressemitteilung/
12.
https://www.desktopsummit.org/program/sessions/free-desktops-europes-public…
13.
https://www.desktopsummit.org/program/sessions/daily-melee-paid-people-with…
14. http://fsfe.org/events/events.en.html
15. http://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipEvents
16. http://planet.fsfe.org
17. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/250
18. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/251
19. http://matija.suklje.name/?q=node/252
20.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/bjg/2011/07/gnu-hackers-meeting-in-paris-25-28-august…
21.
http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2011/07/students-developing-free-software-for-t…
== Get active: Read and distribute "crime story" ==
"When patents attack"[22]is a good story from investigative journalists
on software patents, which reads like a crime story. Your editor
recommends you to read it so you have good arguments in future. If you
like it, distribute the article among your colleagues and friends.
22. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/22/138576167/when-patents-attack
Regards,
Matthias Kirschner- FSFE
--
Free Software Foundation Europe <http://fsfe.org>
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