GPL Version 3, Draft #2 Published Today
Updating Free Software's Top Licence
After six months of public comment, the second public discussion draft of GPLv3 is now online - responding to public input about patents, Digital Restrictions Management, and global enforceability among other things.
Version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), published in 1991, is the most widely used Free Software licence, and possibly the most widely used single licence in the World.
The public process for drafting version 3 began on January 16th when a first discussion draft was published. The final, official version 3 is slated for release in early 2007. Today, the 2nd public discussion draft has gone online.
To explain the proposed changes, and to raise awareness of the process, members of Free Software Foundation Europe have been travelling around Europe, and to the international GPLv3 conferences in Boston, Brazil, and Barcelona.
The GNU GPL aims to ensure that everyone that receives a copy of the software, also receives permission to study it, to change it, and to distribute modified or unmodified copies. The GNU GPL is the real world implementation of this ideal, and not only has the tactic proved practical, but the GNU GPL has also been so-far found enforceable World-wide. Version 3 is an evolution - and upgrade, not a rewrite - on the current licence.
Georg Greve, President of FSFE commented: "People sometimes have the feeling that the GNU GPL has been around forever, and they would not be entirely wrong. Published in 1991, the GNU GPL has proven to be exceptionally successful throughout the past fifteen years." Greve continued, "with such an exceptional success, one will change as little as possible. But there are changes in the legal and technical environment, as well as the position of Free Software and its community, that made some changes advisable. The process to update the licence is aiming at a global GPLv3 drafting team, and everyone is invited to participate."
Ciaran O'Riordan added: "This is a new type of project for the Free Software community, so we're pleased it's going so well. The GPL lays down the terms under which people can distribute free software. It requires that everyone respect certain freedoms for others, and this applies the same for individuals, project teams, networks, right the way up to multinationals. There will be no change in these goals of the GPL - the freedoms to help yourself and for everyone to help each other are ethical imperatives and won't be compromised. The added value of version 3 is being created by everyone working together to preserve freedom against problems that didn't exist in 1991, and to make it as solid and unambiguous as possible - the World over."
More information about the draft and how the public participates is at:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3
And the official GPLv3 website is at:
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition - allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness of these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the United States.
www.fsfeurope.org