GPLv3 discussion draft 3 is out
The text of discussion draft 3 The rationale for the changes in this draft (PDF) A diff of the changes in this draft (PDF) The official GPLv3 web portal FSFE’s GPLv3 project page
GPLv3 draft 3 to be released Wednesday March 28th
Update: FSF has now confirmed this by posting an updated GPLv3 timetable. According to Bruce Perens, discussion draft 3 of GPLv3 is due to be published on Wednesday March 28th: At the FSF general meeting today, Richard Stallman announced that the third discussion draft of GPL version 3 will be released on Wednesday and will Read more »
GPLv3: Simplicity and Length
Everyone wishes that free software licences were shorter. The good news from the GPLv3 process is that by changing the LGPL from being a whole licence to being an additional permission that can accompany the GPL, the LGPL has shrunk drastically and the proposed GPL and LGPL texts, combined, are shorter than the current GPL Read more »
Why GPLv3 says additional permissions are removable
Intro Why this changes nothing substantial If they’re removable, is there a point? Can’t I require that others preserve my additional permissions? Permissions and requirements Intro As with any copyright licence, software developers who use any version of the GPL can also grant additional permissions to recipients for code that they hold the copyright of. Read more »
How GPLv3 addresses the EUCD and DMCA
Draft 3 of GPLv3 should be out Real Soon Now, so I’d like to review some of the topics. I couldn’t find a thorough explanation of how GPLv3 will deal with the "anti-circumvention" clauses of the DMCA and it’s EU counterpart, the the EUCD (see Article 6), so here’s my layperson understanding. These laws harm Read more »
WikiProject Free Software launches on Wikipedia
On Wikipedia, WikiProject Free Software has launched. The goals are to raise the quality of existing free software articles and to fill in any information gaps about the topic. It’s a new initiative and hasn’t yet built up much momentum, so I thought I’d mention here where it some free software savvy people might see Read more »
8 bits of news from recent times
There’s been plenty of good news in the last few weeks. Not enough to write full blog entries on, but here’s a list, newest first: 2007-03-05: Free software is nothing to fear (about the term) 2007-03-02: The Fedora GNU+Linux distro looks to be moving closer to being fully free software – following the lead of Read more »