The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) last week released the second discussion draft of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3. This new draft marks the middle of a year-long public review process designed to evaluate proposed changes and to finalize a new version of the GPL.
The GNU GPL is the most widely used free software license worldwide: almost three quarters of all free software programs (also known as "Free/Libre and Open Source Software", or FLOSS) are distributed under this license. Since the GPL's last revision more than 15 years ago, free software development, distribution, and use have changed tremendously.
Since the release of the initial GPLv3 discussion draft in January, members of the free software community have submitted nearly one thousand suggestions for improvement. Many have continued the discussion at international GPLv3 conferences held in the United States, Brazil, and Spain.
With the help of discussion committees, the Free Software Foundation and the Software Freedom Law Center have considered all the issues raised by public comments. The new draft of GPLv3 contains extensive revisions in light of these comments.
"The primary purpose of the GNU GPL is to preserve users' freedom to use, share, and modify free software," explained Richard Stallman, founder of FSF and original author of the GPL. "We depend on public review to make the GPL do this job reliably."
The new draft clarifies that the license only directly restricts DRM (Digital Rights Management) in the special case in which it is used to prevent people from sharing or modifying GPLv3-covered software. The clarified DRM section preserves the spirit of the original GPL, which forbids adding additional unfree restrictions to free software. GPLv3 does not prohibit the implementation of DRM features, but prevents them from being imposed on users in a way that they cannot remove.
Other significant revisions in the new draft include a reworked license compatibility section, and provisions that specifically allow GPL-covered programs to be distributed on certain file sharing networks such as BitTorrent.
Additionally, this release includes the first draft of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 3. The LGPL license covers many free software system libraries, including some published by the Free Software Foundation.
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