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The Free Software Foundation has [release the third discussion draft of GPL v3][1]. The new draft incorporates from the general public as well as international discussion committees. The revised GPL v3 includes several significant changes and addresses many of the concerns that caused a fair amount of public outcry when the original draft was released.
The changes in today's draft include the following new or changed provisions:
* First-time violators can have their license automatically restored if they remedy the problem within thirty days.
* License compatibility terms have been simplified, with the goal of making them easier to understand and administer.
* Manufacturers who include the software in consumer products must also provide installation information for the software along with the source. This change provides more narrow focus for requirements that were proposed in previous drafts.
* New patent requirements have been added to prevent distributors from colluding with patent holders to provide discriminatory protection from patents.
The current draft will be available for discussion for 60 days. After that there will be one more public "last call" draft before the foundation's board of directors votes to approve the final text of GPL v3.
The FSF says that the GNU components in the GNU system will be released under GPL version 3, once it is finalized. The other major chunk of GPL licensed software, the Linux kernel, may opt to adopt the new license, but Linus Torvalds hasn't committed to it just yet.
In an [interview with CNet][2], Torvalds says, "the current draft makes me think it's at least a possibility in theory, but whether it's practical and worth it is a totally different thing,"
For many the major sticking points in earlier drafts was the language surrounding DRM and patent concerns brought to light by the recent Microsoft-Novell partnership.
Richard Stallman, president of the FSF and principal author of the GNU GPL, said in a press release yesterday, that one of the GPL's goals was to stop companies like Microsoft and Novell from "undermining" the user's freedoms.
"These freedoms allow you to run the program as you see fit, study and adapt it for your own purposes, redistribute copies to help your neighbor, and release your improvements to the public," writes Stallman.
Language in the GPL v3 preamble confirms that sentiment saying, "we wish to avoid the special danger that patents applied to a free program could make it effectively proprietary. To prevent this, the GPL assures that patents cannot be used to render the program non-free."
However one of the main issues for many people is how the actual legal language in the GPL handles the goals of the preamble. Originally the GPL v3 contained so very specific requirements restricting what hardware manufacturers could include in their products, but those provisions have largely been removed.
If you'd like to comment on the current draft, [head over to the FSF's site][3] and read through the license.
[1]: http://www.fsf.org/news/gplv3dd3-released "FSF releases third draft of GPLv3 for discussion"
[2]: http://news.com.com/2061-10795_3-6171300.html "Torvalds 'pretty pleased' about new GPL 3 draft"
[3]: http://gplv3.fsf.org/comments/gplv3-draft-3.html#all "GPL v# comments"
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