[FSFE PR][EN] Europe to host 3rd International GPLv3 Conference: Barcelona, Spain, June 22nd & 23rd

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

          EUROPE TO HOST 3rd INTERNATIONAL GPLV3 CONFERENCE

                  BARCELONA, SPAIN, JUNE 22nd & 23rd

Europe will host the 3rd international GPLv3 conference on June 22nd &
23rd.  The conference will take place in Barcelona, Spain, and the exact
venue will be announced soon.

In January, a year-long public consultation process for updating the GNU
General Public License was launched.  Commonly called "the GPL", this
licence is used by the majority of Free Software to detail the distribution
terms of the software.

This coming conference will approximately mark the half-way point of
that process.

The goal of the GPL is to ensure that recipients of GPL covered
software are free to examine it, to modify it, to pass on copies, and
to distribute modifications.  Version two of the GPL was released
fifteen years ago, in 1991.  The new version is being drafted to
account for changes in the legal and technical environment in which
software licences operate.

The main changes in version three are to minimise the harm of software
patents, to prevent Digital Restrictions Management from being used
against software users, and to make the licence compatible with
certain classes of other Free Software licences.

The international GPLv3 conferences are part of an effort to maximise
awareness of the updating of the GPL, and to tap into the knowledge of
the community around the World.  The first conference was in North
America, and the second was in South America.

When version three of the GPL is published at the end of this public
consultation process, most GPL covered software will automatically
transition to it.

Confirmed speakers include Richard Stallman, founder and president of Free
Software Foundation (FSF), who will discuss the reasons for the main
changes, Eben Moglen, chairman at Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and
legal counsel of Free Software Foundation, who will explain the legal
implementation, and Georg Greve, President of Free Software Foundation
Europe.  Expert panelists from all parts of Europe, and from around the
World will lead discussions on licence internationalisation, DRM, software
patents, and adoption of the finished licence.

The Conference's schedule and further information will be published
soon at http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/europe-gplv3-conference


-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan __________________ \ http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \  GPLv3 and other work supported by
http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \   Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org