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01.25.06
Linux
Developers Tackle GPL 3
 By
David A. Utter
Some developers in the Linux community have taken the discussion about the new
General Public License terms to a contentious point: using it for the next Linux
kernel, while a greater challenge over DRM looms.
The first draft of the GPL version 3 terms crafted by Richard Stallman and Eben
Moglen became public last week, as a conference held at MIT. This work represents
the first update to the GPL in fifteen years, the Free Software Foundation said
on its website.
Universal acceptance of the initial draft may be a while in arriving. There's
plenty of time to gain more acceptance, since a final version won't be available
for another 12 months. This leaves ample time for developers who currently question
whether GPL 3 may find a place eventually in the Linux kernel.
ZDNet UK noted
how a couple of prominent developers raised
the issue of gaining permission from copyright holders to shift the Linux kernel's
licensing terms from the present GPL 2 incarnation to GPL 3.
It may be a moot point anyway, as respected developer Alan Cox pointed out in
responding to those comments on the Linux kernel mailing list. "Very few people
specifically put their code [GPL]v2 only, and [Linux creator] Linus' [Torvalds]
edit of the top copying file was not done with permission of other copyright holders
anyway so really only affects his code if it is valid at all," he wrote.
A bigger issue rising on GPL 3's horizon will be digital rights management (DRM),
which Stallman and Moglen call "digital restrictions management. Ars Technica
touched
on the "hot-button" issue in story post on GPL 3:
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The wording of the language makes it clear that GPL3 is aiming to
exclude software and products that utilize DRM. This is not entirely surprising,
as Richard Stallman, the creator of the original GPL and one of the two co-authors
of GPL3, already hinted as such. "We might put in something refusing to allow
DRM modifications. Maybe, maybe not," he said in an interview in April 2005. The
use of the word "Restrictions" instead of "Rights" in the DRM acronym appears
to further enforce their anti-DRM position.
Ars Technica extended the DRM issue to Torvalds himself, by noting his general
distancing from the topic:
Interestingly, Linus himself has a very hands-off approach to DRM. In a statement
on a Linux developer mailing list, he stated that he has no strong feelings on
the issue one way or another, and resented people trying to turn Linux into an
anti-DRM crusade:
"I've had some private discussions with various
people about this already, and I do realize that a lot of people want to use the
kernel in some way to just make DRM go away, at least as far as Linux is concerned….
I also don't necessarily like DRM myself, but I still ended up feeling the same:
I'm an "Oppenheimer", and I refuse to play politics with Linux, and I think you
can use Linux for whatever you want to…."
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Contact
him here
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