www/licenses gpl-3.0.html rms-why-gplv3.html

[Brett Smith]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Brett Smith <brett>     07/06/29 20:12:53

Modified files:
        licenses       : gpl-3.0.html 
Added files:
        licenses       : rms-why-gplv3.html 

Log message:
        Add RMS' Why Upgrade essay.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/licenses/gpl-3.0.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.11&r2=1.12
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/licenses/rms-why-gplv3.html?cvsroot=www&rev=1.1

Patches:
Index: gpl-3.0.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/licenses/gpl-3.0.html,v
retrieving revision 1.11
retrieving revision 1.12
diff -u -b -r1.11 -r1.12
--- gpl-3.0.html        29 Jun 2007 16:56:43 -0000      1.11
+++ gpl-3.0.html        29 Jun 2007 20:12:40 -0000      1.12
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
       <a href="gpl3-final-rationale.tex">LaTeX</a>,
       <a href="gpl3-final-rationale.pdf">PDF</a>,
       <a href="gpl3-final-rationale.ps">PostScript</a>.</li>
+  <li><a href="rms-why-upgrade.html">Why Upgrade to GPLv3</a></li>
   <li><a href="/licenses/gpl-violation.html"><em>What to do if you see a
        possible GPL violation</em></a></li>
   <li><a href="/licenses/translations.html"><em>Translations
@@ -764,7 +765,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2007/06/29 16:56:43 $
+$Date: 2007/06/29 20:12:40 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>

Index: rms-why-gplv3.html
===================================================================
RCS file: rms-why-gplv3.html
diff -N rms-why-gplv3.html
--- /dev/null   1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0000
+++ rms-why-gplv3.html  29 Jun 2007 20:12:40 -0000      1.1
@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<title>Why Upgrade to GPLv3 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation 
(FSF)</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>Why Upgrade to GPLv3</h2>
+
+<!-- This document uses XHTML 1.0 Strict, but may be served as -->
+<!-- text/html.  Please ensure that markup style considers -->
+<!-- appendex C of the XHTML 1.0 standard. See validator.w3.org. -->
+
+<!-- Please ensure links are consistent with Apache's MultiView. -->
+<!-- Change include statements to be consistent with the relevant -->
+<!-- language, where necessary. -->
+
+<p>by <strong>Richard Stallman</strong></p>
+
+<p>Version 3 of the GNU General Public License will soon be finished,
+enabling free software packages to upgrade from GPL version 2.  This
+article explains why upgrading the license is important.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, it is important to note that upgrading is a choice.  GPL
+version 2 will remain a valid license, and no disaster will happen if
+some programs remain under GPLv2 while others advance to GPLv3.  These
+two licenses are incompatible, but that isn't a serious problem.</p>
+
+<p>When we say that GPLv2 and GPLv3 are incompatible, it means there is
+no legal way to combine code under GPLv2 with code under GPLv3 in a
+single program.  This is because both GPLv2 and GPLv3 are copyleft
+licenses: each of them says, &ldquo;If you include code under this license
+in a larger program, the larger program must be under this license
+too.&rdquo;  There is no way to make them compatible.  We could add a
+GPLv2-compatibility clause to GPLv3, but it wouldn't do the job,
+because GPLv2 would need a similar clause.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, license incompatibility only matters when you want to
+link, merge or combine code from two different programs into a single
+program.  There is no problem in having GPLv3-covered and
+GPLv2-covered programs side by side in an operating system.  For
+instance, the TeX license and the Apache license are incompatible with
+GPLv2, but that doesn't stop us from running TeX and Apache in the
+same system with Linux, Bash and GCC.  This is because they are all
+separate programs.  Likewise, if Bash and GCC move to GPLv3, while
+Linux remains under GPLv2, there is no conflict.</p>
+
+<p>Keeping a program under GPLv2 won't create problems.  The reason to
+migrate is because of the existing problems which GPLv3 will address.</p>
+
+<p>One major danger that GPLv3 will block is tivoization.  Tivoization
+means computers (called &ldquo;appliances&rdquo;) contain GPL-covered software
+that you can't change, because the appliance shuts down if it detects
+modified software.  The usual motive for tivoization is that the
+software has features the manufacturer thinks lots of people won't
+like.  The manufacturers of these computers take advantage of the
+freedom that free software provides, but they don't let you do
+likewise.</p>
+
+<p>Some argue that competition between appliances in a free market should
+suffice to keep nasty features to a low level.  Perhaps competition
+alone would avoid arbitrary, pointless misfeatures like &ldquo;Must shut
+down between 1pm and 5pm every Tuesday&rdquo;, but even so, a choice of
+masters isn't freedom.  Freedom means <em>you</em> control what your software
+does, not merely that you can beg or threaten someone else who decides
+for you.</p>
+
+<p>In the crucial area of Digital Restrictions Management&mdash;nasty features
+designed to restrict your use of the data in your
+computer&mdash;competition is no help, because relevant competition is
+forbidden.  Under the Digital Millenuium Copyright Act and similar
+laws, it is illegal, in the US and many other countries, to distribute
+DVD players unless they restrict the user according to the official
+rules of the DVD conspiracy (its web site is <a 
href="http://www.dvdcca.org/";>http://www.dvdcca.org/</a>,
+but the rules do not seem to be published there).  The public can't
+reject DRM by buying non-DRM players, because none are available.  No
+matter how many products you can choose from, they all have equivalent
+digital handcuffs.</p>
+
+<p>GPLv3 ensures you are free to remove the handcuffs.  It doesn't forbid
+DRM, or any kind of feature.  It places no limits on the substantive
+functionality you can add to a program, or remove from it.  Rather, it
+makes sure that you are just as free to remove nasty features as the
+distributor of your copy was to add them.  Tivoization is the way they
+deny you that freedom; to protect your freedom, GPLv3 forbids
+tivoization.</p>
+
+<p>The ban on tivoization applies to any product whose use by consumers,
+even occasionally, is to be expected.  GPLv3 tolerates tivoization
+only for products that are almost exclusively meant for businesses and
+organizations.  (The latest draft of GPLv3 states this criterion
+explicitly.)</p>
+
+<p>Another threat that GPLv3 resists is that of patent deals like the
+Novell-Microsoft deal.  Microsoft wants to use its thousands of
+patents to make GNU/Linux users pay Microsoft for the privilege, and
+made this deal to try to get that.  The deal offers Novell's customers
+rather limited protection from Microsoft patents.</p>
+
+<p>Microsoft made a few mistakes in the Novell-Microsoft deal, and GPLv3
+is designed to turn them against Microsoft, extending that limited
+patent protection to the whole community.  In order to take advantage
+of this, programs need to use GPLv3.</p>
+
+<p>Microsoft's lawyers are not stupid, and next time they may manage to
+avoid those mistakes.  GPLv3 therefore says they don't get a &ldquo;next
+time&rdquo;.  Releasing a program under GPL version 3 protects it from
+Microsoft's future attempts to make redistributors collect Microsoft
+royalties from the program's users.</p>
+
+<p>GPLv3 also provides for explicit patent protection of the users from
+the program's contributors and redistributors.  With GPLv2, users rely
+on an implicit patent license to make sure that the company which
+provided them a copy won't sue them, or the people they redistribute
+copies to, for patent infringement.</p>
+
+<p>The explicit patent license in GPLv3 does not go as far as we might
+have liked.  Ideally, we would make everyone who redistributes
+GPL-covered code surrender all software patents, along with everyone
+who does not redistribute GPL-covered code.  Software patents are a
+vicious and absurd system that puts all software developers in danger
+of being sued by companies they have never heard of, as well as by all
+the megacorporations in the field.  Large programs typically combine
+thousands of ideas, so it is no surprise if they implement ideas
+covered by hundreds of patents.  Megacorporations collect thousands of
+patents, and use those patents to bully smaller developers.  Patents
+already obstruct free software development.</p>
+
+<p>The only way to make software development safe is to abolish software
+patents, and we aim to achieve this some day.  But we cannot do this
+through a software license.  Any program, free or not, can be killed
+by a software patent in the hands of an unrelated party, and the
+program's license cannot prevent that.  Only court decisions or
+changes in patent law can make software development safe from patents.
+If we tried to do this with GPLv3, it would fail.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, GPLv3 seeks to limit and channel the danger.  In
+particular, we have tried to save free software from a fate worse than
+death: to be made effectively proprietary, through patents.  The
+explicit patent license of GPLv3 makes sure companies that use the GPL
+to give users the four freedoms cannot turn around and use their
+patents to tell some users &ldquo;That doesn't include you.&rdquo;  It also 
stops
+them from colluding with other patent holders to do this.</p>
+
+<p>Further advantages of GPLv3 include better internationalization, gentler
+termination, support for BitTorrent, and compatibility with the Apache
+license.  All in all, plenty of
+reason to upgrade.</p>
+
+<p>Change is unlikely to cease once GPLv3 is released.  If new threats to
+users' freedom develop, we will have to develop GPL version 4.  It is
+important to make sure that programs will have no trouble upgrading to
+GPLv4 when the time comes.</p>
+
+<p>One way to do this is to release a program under &ldquo;GPL version 3 or any
+later version&rdquo;.  Another way is for all the contributors to a program
+to state a proxy who can decide on upgrading to future GPL versions.
+The third way is for all the contributors to assign copyright to one
+designated copyright holder, who will be in a position to upgrade the
+license version.  One way or another, programs should provide this
+flexibility for the future.</p>
+
+
+<!-- If needed, change the copyright block at the bottom. In general, -->
+<!-- all pages on the GNU web server should have the section about    -->
+<!-- verbatim copying.  Please do NOT remove this without talking     -->
+<!-- with the webmasters first. --> 
+<!-- Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document -->
+<!-- and that it is like this "2001, 2002" not this "2001-2002." -->
+</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
+
+<p>
+Please send FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to 
+<a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 
+the FSF.
+<br />
+Please send broken links and other corrections or suggestions to
+<a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Please see the 
+<a href="/server/standards/README.translations">Translations
+README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting
+translations of this article.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Copyright &copy; 2007 Richard Stallman<br>
+Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted
+worldwide without royalty in any medium provided this notice is preserved.</p>
+
+<p>
+Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2007/06/29 20:12:40 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div id="translations">
+<h3>Translations of this page:</h3>
+
+<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical. -->
+<!-- Comment what the language is for each type, i.e. de is Deutsch.-->
+<!-- If you add a new language here, please -->
+<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
+<!--  - /home/www/bin/nightly-vars either TAGSLANG or WEBLANG -->
+<!--  - /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
+<!--  - one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
+<!--  - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
+<!--  to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
+<!-- Please also check you have the 2 letter language code right versus -->
+<!-- <URL:http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm> -->
+<!-- Please use W3C normative character entities -->
+
+<ul>
+<!-- English -->
+<li><a href="/licenses/rms-why-gplv3.html">English</a>&nbsp;[en]</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>