Despite the third version of the GPL being released (read the GPLv3 legal code), all software, which has been published and hosted on G-Loaded.eu and is subject to the terms of the GPLv2, remains under its current license (GPLv2) until further notice. This is not because I consider the 3rd revision of the license as bad. I just believe it has less value than v2 for the following reasons:
- The GPLv3 seems like it has been primarily written with the FSF’s business-world wars in mind and not the adaptation of free software to our world.
- The GPLv3 seems like it has been written with a dream world in mind and not the real world conditions. An example: medical devices, security devices etc, which may use embedded free software, must be fully hackable by design… At this point let me wonder if we all live on the same planet after all… (Seriously, what is the matter with you people? The world is _not_ only about multimedia players, network devices and document formats!). [Update: also, read my comment about this license condition.]
- The GPLv3 seems like a first step in an attempt to adapt the world to the free software principals, while, IMHO, we should move towards the exact opposite direction, aka adapt free software to our world.
- The 3rd revision of the GPL has become a bit restrictive, so it is only a matter of time until someone manages to legally bypass those restrictions. So, I predict that v3 will not last for as many years as the 2nd revision has lasted. I dare to state that it won’t last more than 5 years.
In short, I would say that while GPLv2 is a diachronic license, v3 includes some restrictions that reflect the current times, therefore, even if it might have great value as a license today, it is almost certain that it won’t be that valuable in the upcoming years, as things in the software industry change rapidly.
Anyhow, despite all the above “reasons not to like GPLv3“, I will probably re-license all the released GPLv2 code to GPLv3 at some later time. Honestly, it is of little importance to me if it is GPL v2 or v3.
Moreover, I may try to use some other license as my main license for future code releases. I must admit that I am very attracted to the Creative-Commons licenses. This will depend on numerous factors, which I won’t outline at the present time.
You can read a series of quality comments about the GPLv3 in this comment thread on OSnews.
What I would like to write as a conclusion is taken from the aforementioned comments:
v2 is about “can’t we all just get along?”; v3 is about “no, we can’t”
PS: Comments are on, but I will not be following the discussion for the following days due to other obligations. Feel free to write your opinion, but do not expect any answer soon.
GPLv3 is out – The G-Loaded.eu views, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.