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GPLv3: What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been


Richard Stallman ruminates on the process of producing the new GPL

By Alex Handy
July 15, 2007 — 
With the GPLv3 revisions complete, the time of decision for developers has begun. But while only time will tell whether the GNU/Linux kernel moves to GPLv3, one thing is certain: The GPL revision process is forever changed. For keeper of the GPL flame Richard Stallman, the days of going it alone are history. While Stallman has no plans for the community now built around the revision process for GPLv3, he recognizes that the way in which the revisions were developed was a win for all parties involved.

Stallman originally created the GNU Public License in 1989. Two years later, he was working on an updated version of the license. “For GPL version 2, I knew of certain problems I wanted to deal with. I spoke with our lawyer, and we worked out solutions and then we published it. At the time, the GPL was not very much used by programs that weren’t part of the GNU system,” said Stallman.

But when the time to revise GPLv2 came last year, Stallman and the Free Software Foundation decided to try something new, something approaching democracy. So for the past year, individuals within the open source community have submitted their comments on the new version of the GPL. In some ways, this new focus on community mirrors the changes that have taken place in software as well as its licensing over the past 15 years, thanks to the GPL itself.

“It is a process of giving everyone a chance to look for errors. We’ve got to be a lot more careful with the GPL than with our programs,” said Stallman. That’s because the GPL can’t be constantly refined and revised, unlike the software it governs.

The ability to distribute modified GPL code in black-box hardware without releasing source code for the modifications has been snuffed out with the release of GPLv3, said Stallman. “We had a lot of changes in the ways to address the dangers of ‘Tivo-ization,’ and a way to deal with software patents and the threats they make. We’re trying to protect free software from a fate worse than death,” he claimed.

From a global perspective, Stallman also said that GPLv3 is more applicable, thanks to the help of the many users who wrote in with suggestions. “The work we did to make the license more internationally uniform is also a thing where we did some of it, and we found out during the process that we had to do more of it,” said Stallman.

For now, Stallman returns to his daily duties at the Free Software Foundation. He predicts that the GPL may need another makeover someday, but he is confident that the community will again come to his aid when asked. He predicts that those he sees as the enemies of free software will not relinquish their assault anytime soon. “The point of this is to defend the freedom of all users of free software,” Stallman said. “It’s work that has to be done because it’s needed.”


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