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What Do You Think of the GPLv3?

dcp's picture
Wed, 2007-08-08 03:02 — dcp

I would like to find out what some of you are thinking about the GNU GPLv3? Where do you see it's strengths and weaknesses? How do you feel about the Tivo-ization clause? Do you feel the GPLv3 adequately addresses the Microsoft patent agreements? What else about the GPLv3 do you like or dislike?


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Wed, 2007-10-31 17:03 — Magic Banana

I love it!

I think that GPLv3 is an excellent choice! I personally use it and recommend it to almost any software (the rest being libraries which are "classical" enough to be put under a LGPLv3 license).

  1. The main reason is that GPLv3 is a Free Software license: it guarantees the four essential freedoms any user should always be granted.
  2. The second is the use of the copyleft which is the best way to make our Freedom last in time even after modifications.

Naturally, these two points are present in every version of the GPL. GPLv3 only brings some minor modifications to the previous version and, in itself, it is a good thing to point out!

However every modification is very good too. The Tivo-ization clause prevents to work around the license by denying the freedom to modify the software through restrictions performed at the hardware level. The anti patent-agreement was cleverly designed to turn the first of its kind (the Microsoft-Novell agreement) into an advantage for the Free Software community (every user of the softwares delivered by Novell being protected against a "patent attack" even if she is not Novell's customer). Some other smaller changes worth being mentioned. For instance, the license does not make any reference to the US law anymore and clarify some terms which could be misinterpreted in other cultures. That matters to non English-speaking people like me!


Thu, 2007-10-11 14:04 — akf

GPLv3

Well the GPLv2 was a longish, comlicated beast, and v3 is even more so,

But still I like what it says… at least as far as I understand it.
Especially that software cannot be locked up in hardware anymore is one of the points I like about it. I even kept my latest project back, until GPLv3 was released, so that there would be no GPLv2 version, which could be forked later.

I still don't understand, why Novell was excempted. I still hope, that the future will show, why they did.

BTW. I just found out, that the GPLv3-buttons they offer, don't work with the browser of windows (at least older versions). Is that deliberately so? ;-)