The Free Software Foundation has released the third version of the GNU General Public License which addresses many new patent concerns (focused around recent Microsoft deals), 'Tivoisation' and other issues too. The Lesser GNU General Public License (LGPL) has also been updated to version 3.
“Since we founded the free software movement, over 23 years ago, the free software community has developed thousands of useful programs that respect the user's freedom. The programs are in the GNU/Linux operating system, as well as personal computers, telephones, Internet servers, and more. Most of these programs use the GNU GPL to guarantee every user the freedom to run, study, adapt, improve, and redistribute the program,” said Richard Stallman, founder and president of the FSF.Version 3 of the GNU GPL strengthens this guarantee, by ensuring that users can modify the free software on their personal and household devices, and granting patent licenses to every user. It also extends compatibility with other free software licenses and increases international uniformity.
The GPL is one of the most important software licences in the whole technology industry and this new release is quite a momentous event for not only the free software industry, but for tech as a whole.
Actually, I find it quite interesting that the FSF chose to release it when they did, on the same day as the release of the iPhone, which has inevitably meant that the news of the GPLv3's release has been overshadowed somewhat by Apple's new device.
I think now it is going to be interesting to see what the developers of the Linux kernel think of the new licence and the overall choice they make, as well as watching to see other projects who may or may not migrate to the GPLv3.
For more information about GPLv3, head over to the FSF's official GPLv3 site here.
