GNU General Public License has provided the legal foundation for much of what’s been accomplished with free and open source software. Now the license’s steward, the Free Software Foundation, is revising the venerable document to comprehend the complexities of developing and distributing open source software in the modern day. In this exclusive article, Groklaw founder and editor Pamela Jones analyzes many of the proposed changes found in GPL Version 3 and explains what’s in store for you if your name is Joe Coder.
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For more than ten years, the GNU General Public License has provided the legal foundation for much of what’s been accomplished with free and open source software. Now the license’s steward, the Free Software Foundation, is revising the venerable document to comprehend the complexities of developing and distributing open source software in the modern day. In this exclusive article, Groklaw founder and editor Pamela Jones analyzes many of the proposed changes found in GPL Version 3 and explains what’s in store for you if your name is Joe Coder.
But what are the more meaty changes proposed? Are there changes in what a developer must do? Yes.
One significant change is the rule governing termination. Previously, if the terms of the GPL were violated, termination was automatic. Now, according to GPLv3, the copyright holder has a duty to notify the violator and give the violator an opportunity to cure. Why? Practical reasons. For one thing, experience has shown that most violations are inadvertent and automatic termination is too harsh a punishment. Moreover, it can be difficult to contact all of the copyright holders of a large collection of software to get all to agree to allow a violator who has cured to distribute under the GPL again. (In some cases, it’s virtually impossible.)
Under the new terms, a violator is accorded 60 days to cure after receiving notification of a violation. If the violation isn’t cured within that window, the violator may no longer distribute under the GPL. Furthermore, the only way for the violator to recapture that right is to cure and seek the approvals of the copyright holders to distribute anew. If no one notices a violation until a year after the occurrence, the violator still only gets 60 days to cure after the copyright holder sends notice. The 60 days refers to the violator, not the copyright holder.
The most popular major change in GPLv3 seems to be the new patent clause. The clause is also the first restriction…
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