Tags: Linux, Microsoft

Free Software Foundation releases fourth draft of GPLv3

The Free Software Foundation has released the fourth draft of the upcoming GNU general public license. They call it the “last-call” draft and have also released their views on why the open source software community should adopt GPLv3 as soon as possible.

The GPL was originally created by Richard Stallman in 1989. It was designed for the GNU free operating system project.

The last major revision to the license was made 16 years ago and was released as the GPLv2. The fourth draft of the GPLv3 has been released along with a statement by Stallman who highlights the benefits of moving from GPLv2 to GPLv3.

One of the major features of this updated release is to deal effectively with the recent patent-licensing deal signed in between Novell and Microsoft related to Linux operating system.

Stallman wrote in his statement on this deal: “Microsoft made a few mistakes in the Novell-Microsoft deal, and GPLv3 is designed to turn them against Microsoft, extending that limited patent protection to the whole community. In order to take advantage of this, programs need to use GPLv3.”

He adds: “Freedom means _you_ control what your software does, not merely that you can beg or threaten someone else who decides for you. GPLv3 ensures you are free to remove the handcuffs. It doesn’t forbid DRM, or any kind of feature. … Rather, it makes sure that you are just as free to remove nasty features as the distributor of your copy was to add them.”

Checkout: Free Software Foundation