Friday, July 28, 2006
Torvalds critical of new GPL draft (Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)
"Torvalds critical of new GPL draft —
The second draft of a revised General Public License has been released, but Linus Torvalds--founder and leader of the best-known software project governed by the GPL--remains unconvinced of its merits.
Torvalds' concern is with the clause in the GPLv3 second draft regarding digital rights management (DRM) technology, which puts controls on how computers can run software or supply content such as movies or music.
Whereas the GPL version 2 was a basic "quid pro quo" arrangement that required anyone modifying source code to make the changes public, the draft of GPLv3 extends much further, Torvalds argued. GPL is a widely used license that governs the use of open-source software.
GPLv3 "basically says, 'We don't want access just to your software modifications. We want access to your hardware, too,'" Torvalds said. "I don't think it's my place as a software developer to judge how hardware works around it."
But the Free Software Foundation argues that it's modernizing the license, not changing its spirit. It's seeking to prevent hardware makers from using DRM as a technological end-run around the license's legal requirements for programmer freedoms. "If you're keeping the right to modify and not conveying that right to modify, you're violating the license," said Eben Moglen, the foundation's top lawyer, in an earlier interview.
Torvalds sees it differently.
Source: CNET News.com
Author: Stephen Shankland
Link: http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6099475.html
Wow. Torvalds trashing the GPL. History in the making. The GPL is doomed to obscurity as it reaches its tentacles to boundaries that are taboo. The irony is just too think to stand eh?
