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General Public License 3.0: Hacking The Free Software Movement's Constitution, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
General Public License 3.0: Hacking The Free Software Movement's Constitution, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz
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The General Public License (GPL) enshrines a software hacker’s freedom to use code in important ways. Hackers often refer to the GPL as the free software movement’s “constitution.” Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) wrote the most recent version of the GPL, version 2.0, back in 1991. For a constitution, a fourteen-year-old document is young, but for a license, it is quite old. The revision process is finally underway, led by Stallman and Eben Moglen, FSF’s general counsel.
The release of GPL version 3.0 will be momentous for many reasons, but one reason stands out: The GPL …