Final Draft of GPLv3 Allows Novell-Microsoft Deal 113
famicommie writes "All of Novell's fingernail biting has been for naught. In a display of forgiveness and bridge building on behalf of the FSF, ZDNet reports that the final draft of the GPLv3 will close the infamous MS-Novell loophole while allowing deals made previously to continue. From the article: 'The final, last-call GPLv3 draft bans only future deals for what it described as tactical reasons in a 32-page explanation of changes. That means Novell doesn't have to worry about distributing software in SLES that's governed by the GPLv3 ... Drafting the new license has been a fractious process, but Eben Moglen, the Columbia University law school professor who has led much of the effort, believes consensus is forming. That agreement is particularly important in the open-source realm, where differing license requirements can erect barriers between different open-source projects.'"
TiVo (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:TiVo (Score:5, Informative)
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P:rotection from MSFT patent suits (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:P:rotection from MSFT patent suits (Score:5, Insightful)
For all the sound and fury about GPLv3, I submit that it's really all good. Some strong ideas were expressed by the FSF, feedback came, and the wording was polished such that the final product may prove acceptable over time.
A gold star, a group hug, and a round of Koom Ba Ya for all my friends.
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Old news (Score:5, Informative)
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not binding--some projects will probably strike it (Score:3, Insightful)
For new projects, or if all the developers agree, or for new contributions to existing projects, you can strike the clause permitting earlier deals if you like.
Re:not binding--some projects will probably strike (Score:2)
What makes you believe that that particular license modification is allowed? Generally, modified versions of the GNU GPL are forbidden to reduce the ridiculous proliferation of just-different-enough-to-be-incompatible licenses.
the license is easy to effectively modify (Score:2)
You can add a wrapper. You say the code is under the Foo Public Licence. In that, you refer to the GPL.
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Right, you can distribute a new program under any license you choose, including a modified GPL. But to be clear, you can only do that if you are the author of the program in question. If you receive a GPL'd program from somebody else, then the only way you can redistribute the program is under the unmodified GPL; that is the really clever feature of the license.
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Divide and Conquer (Score:4, Insightful)
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So good move by the FSF and I find it comforting that 'the coun
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Re:Divide and Conquer -- Mod parent up (Score:1)
Microsoft is expected to distribute GPLV3 software. As soon as it does so (don't forget the coupons already sold), M$ will effectively donate any patents theoretically covered by that software.
This concisely explains the tactical reason for the exception. It is also why Microsoft will not distribute GPL V3 software. IANAL, but it may invalidate the Novell agreement anyway. I don't know that Novell can really breathe easier at all.
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Time limit? (Score:1)
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Kudos ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Foolish (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Foolish (Score:4, Informative)
It's actually an evil scheme on the part of the FSF to get Microsoft to distribute GPLv3 software, thus taking away their ability to make patent threats. Further, the Novell-Microsoft deal looks to be mostly harmful in practice - that sort of deal is horribly problematic in theory, but in this particular case it's worth more to the community to yell "Bad Dog" really loud rather than to sucker punch them.
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That's a reasonable argument, but I'm not sure if a judge would agree with it. The patent license only applies to derivative software of the piece of GPLv3 covered software that was distributed, so it's not an unlimited patent license - it's more like a license to use the piece of software that was distributed without
Open Source is Stronger (Re:Foolish) (Score:2)
* Novell and SUSE has been consistently one of the biggest contributors to free and open source software and still is. While probably your distro X is packaging Linux software (a truly wonderful thing), let's not forget that Novell are the ones ensuring that developers can work on this free software. Countless developers to work and improve KDE, GNOME, the Linux Kernel, OpenOffice,
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My distro is Red Hat. Anything else that you have to say? ;)
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Nothing except I love RedHat, the developers there, and what they've done and keep doing for free and open source software. That doesn't mean I need to ignore SUSE/Novell's huge contributions as well.
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You said an awful lot with no attribution. Not saying you made it up or anything. But a few cites would strengthen your arguement.
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LoB
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Compromised (Score:2)
I've also been reading Linus comments on Tivoisation, and I agree with him in principle. However, I see the potential threat th
Re:Compromised (Score:4, Informative)
Tactics are exactly the answer here - the FSF has a history of making tactical compromises. The FSF's process has no more been compromised over this than it was when they decided to release the LGPL and license GNU libc under it.
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What's the tactical reason?
And somehow Chandon Seldon got a +3, Informative for:
Tactics are exactly the answer here - the FSF has a history of making tactical compromises. The FSF's process has no more been compromised over this than it was when they decided to release the LGPL and license GNU libc under it.
Personally, as an outsider on this particular issue; I am no closer to an answer to gr8_phk's question. What exactly is informative about answering "What's the tactical reason" with "The tactics"?
Can anyone provide an actual answer?
Thanks,
~Rebecca
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It's only a +2 informative. I get an awesome karma bonus. =P
Three main reasons:
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On the "being pedantic" sidenote; I have karma bonus disabled, but you start at a base of 1, not zero. So the 2 positive mods you got give 2+1=3, it'd have been +4 with your bonus. But in either case, thanks for the answer
~Rebecca
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Has RMS backed down? (Score:2)
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RMS is a pragmatic idealist, not a blind one. He is and always has been willing to "back down" on issues where that will, from what he sees, serve his ideals better in the long term.
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In the grand scheme of things, I don't think it matters one way or another whether the grandfather clause remains part of GPL3 or not. If RMS sees it the same way, then by allowing it, it disallows similar agreements in the future, but appears merciful to those who previously made agreements in "good faith" (
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FSF Says: Make your deals NOW! (Score:1)
Here's a big clue-in as to why everyone and their mama has been discussing their decision to deal or not deal with MS.
I guess this means that GPLv3 really is closing in?
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Fingernail biting? (Score:1, Flamebait)
This was yet another of those deals where a company includes the usual collection of possible disasters in its SEC filings and the morons at Groklaw turned it into one of their "Company We Don't Like Trembles In Fear Of Teh Community!" fantasies, right?
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It ain't yer battle club to swing. It's RAH's. I doubt if yer involved with the CAW (well, eric probably is...)
Fale (Score:2, Interesting)
Now I'll consider relesing my
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Why would that be so bad? Solaris and *BSD have their own user space tools and they work just fine.
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DRM: GPL3 code is explicitly not covered by DMCA and therefore is legal to circumvent.
patents: already implicitly included in GPL2, now explicitly included in GPL3.
tivoization: did they remove this requirement?
trap deals: forbids new deals, but grandfathers in old deals that might have been made in "good faith". Always a good idea to avoid making people "criminals" after the fact.
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Patents still seem to be almost fine; it even has compatibility with the Apache License v2, so that's pretty important. I heard that they were allowing the MS/Novell deal because as soon as Novell distributes
Is the GPLV3 REALLY That Important? (Score:2, Interesting)
The GPL is sorta irrelevant in a way. Any more, open source can mean any number of licenses
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Great, use the BSD licence, it will be perfect as a non-copyleft free software licence, which is what you're aiming for.
The GPL is sorta irrelevant in a way
For you, maybe. But you're assuming that everyone also "doesn't worry" in the way you do, and you are discounting the fact that other - apparently a large number - people have other reasons to use a copyleft licence such as th
Re:Is the GPLV3 REALLY That Important? (Score:5, Insightful)
The the appropriate license for your projects is BSD or public domain, but that doesn't necessarily mean that others have the same perspective. Is it so hard to imagine that others would want to ensure their code and modifications to it remain open? That's what the GPL is for: ensuring that is getting more complicated as the older defitions of using code and distributing code and modifying code are getting blurrier, so a new revision of the GPL is going to clarify some of that.
I haven't made my mind up on the v3 stuff yet, but I'm a GPL supported more than a BSD supporter. But I can still understand why someone would want to follow the "more free" BSD policies for simplicity's sake to avoid a lot of the legal wranglings and to encourage more ubiquitous acceptance of the code into more markets/uses.
-NRe: (Score:1)
The original GPL was essentially a rallying cry more than a license, and the GPLv2 was more sedately worded but just as radical in thought. Nowadays, free software is much more accepted as a thought, and so, GPL is becoming an important but not so dominant, flavor of free.
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It's not about making money. There's plenty of examples of companies making money off GPL code that they didn't originate (or write). The difference between the choices you've noted are the requirements and ownership of the code. GPL requires in-turn contribution of changes made and maintains copyright to the author. BSD requires credit and retains copyright. The public domain is s
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I just don't see the need for this license at all.
There exists a multitude of licensing options because all this finite detail about exactly how and why and when and where you can use free software does matter to a lot of people. There are a good number of die-hard BSDers that believe that "as long as I get credit, do as you like". For many, more restrictions are important to them. For them GPL, Apache, or one of the other 53 OSI approved licenses exists so you can pin down exactly what rights you wish to maintain. It's not necessarily about whether
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Look at it from a business standpoint. If I add a feature I need to a BSD-licensed project, for example, and contribute the code back so someone else can maintain and extend it and keep it integrated with new versions (so I don't have to keep updating and applying my own patches as new versions get released). Now a competitor can come along, extend my feature a bit, use that in their own product and never let me have access to their extension. But if I did the same with a GPL-licensed project, then although
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Hold it right there. Free software copyleft licenses don't exist to prevent capitalism. They exist to prevent turning free software into proprietary software. It has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with secrecy and control.
From Selling Free Software [gnu.org]:
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RMS is looking for any excuse not to have to take a shower.
summary is wrong (Score:4, Informative)
Doesn't exempt, though (Score:5, Informative)
All the GPLv3 language does is make merely having entered into the deal not per se a violation of the license. It does not exempt the company from any of the other terms of the license, including the requirement that all recipients receive not merely the protections resulting from any agreement but the right to pass along those protections in turn. So Novell is still on the hook there: as soon as they're faced with GPLv3'd software in their distribution they'll have to decide whether or not they can extend the agreement with Microsoft to cover all Linux users, not just those who got their software directly from Novell. If they can't, then distribution subject to the agreement would still be a violation of the GPLv3 even with the grandfather clause in there.
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So, you must retain and must reproduce. Since you MUST do something, it isn't free, following the same logic.
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The GPL tells you nothing about what you have to do with your code. The GPL tells you what you have to do with other people's code. In fact, BSD-style licenses are the same way.
The GPL and BSD license are both distribution licenses. If you own the copyright on your code, you can distribute it however you like. You can GPL it, then close the source later, relicense, dual licence
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What you must do is release all your source code, IFF you elect to invoke the GPL as the instrument by which you are allowed to disseminate your program to others. No such invocation, no such obligation.
Of course, if you elect to disseminate your program to others, you may wish to verify that it is not an unlicensed derivative work belonging to someone else. If it is, you may find yourself at the nasty end of a lawsuit,
C//
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Yes. That's because by using the code in a closed source application you'd not give to those receiving the closed source application the rights you got for the GPLed code. In short, you don't get the right to not pass on the rights you did get for the code you received.
In effect there are two things you have to differentiate. The first is things you actually do, like reading the code,
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You've confused "freedom" with "anarchy".
Slashdot needs an NPOV tag. (Score:2, Insightful)
What are you willing to bet that it would read quite like that if it were Microsoft displaying the forgiveness?
Linus's Hand (Score:1)
I say the FSF has not lost its edge and focus as to what the real intentions of Redmond are.
I, for one, welcome our new patent blasting, music playing and freedom catering GPL-III overl
GPLv3ng (Score:1)
The grandfather clause acts as a flip-flop. Any developer who wants to allow their GPL3 code to be distributed by Novell under the Microsoft-Novell agreement will use GPL3 with the grandfather clause included. Any developer who does not want their code distributed by Novell under the Microsoft-Novell ag
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I think it's more an acknowledgment that the courts tend to take a dim view of trying to bind anyone to terms they couldn't have known about beforehand. So the grandfather clause says that deals entered into before the relevant changes to GPLv3 were penned aren't, merely by existing, a violation of the license. But notice that the language of GPLv3 applies that grandfather clause only to the existence of the agreement. Distribution of GPLv3'd software under such an agreement is not grandfathered, and is sti
Linspire and Xandros (Score:1)
So why the distinction between Novell on the one hand and Linspire and Xandros on he other?
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Steve Stites
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Because Novell, at the time it entered into the deal, had no knowledge of the then-nonexistent new language in the GPL. Linspire and Xandros, at the time they entered into their deals, knew about the language and knew it was going to be part of the license.
SuSe-Microsoft deal (Score:1)