Somewhat off-topic - the GPL v2/v3 debate, and Hobbit

[Henrik Stoerner]

As You may have heard, there is currently a rather intense debate
going on about the proposed new version 3 of the GNU General Public
License (the GPL).

Hobbit uses the GPL license - and specifically, it uses the current
version 2. A change to version 3 of the GPL therefore cannot happen
automatically - it has to be a deliberate decision by me (and anyone
else who has contributed code to Hobbit) to do so.

The proposed GPL v3 adds some rather troubling restrictions to the
license, especially when it comes to using GPL-licensed code in systems
that include various DRM (Digital Rights Management) mechanisms. It 
also poses some legal challenges to companies that obtain patents on
their work, which could very well mean that they would not be able 
to use GPLv3 licensed software at all.

I fundamentally believe that DRM and patents - especially patents on
computer software - is evil, and I would never buy anything that comes
with such restrictions on what I can use it for.

However, the GPL v3 proposal is too much of a "fight fire with fire"
agenda for me. Whether our society should permit patents is a political
discussion, not a software-development issue. So it should be handled
politically, not in a software license. DRM restrictions can be dealt
with simply through normal market mechanisms - if you dislike them, 
dont buy products that have them. Or make something that is better
and release it in an Open Source way.

I am not a lawyer, so I may have misunderstood quite what the proposed 
changes mean - but if I have, then several other software developers whose 
judgment I respect have also misunderstood them. Most notably, a large 
collection of the Linux kernel developers - including Linus Torvalds - 
strongly oppose the GPL v3 changes and have recently published a discussion 
document detailing why they believe these changes are wrong. 
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/448894
When the second draft of GPLv3 was published, Linus also participated
in a lengthy discussion explaining his views on the Groklaw blog. If
you're interested, see the (long) "DRM misunderstood" thread starting at
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060727140038810 and especially
http://www.groklaw.net/comment.php?mode=display&sid=20060727140038810&title=DRM+%26quot%3BMisunderstood%26quot%3B&type=article&order=&hideanonymous=0&pid=465791#c465845

All that just to explain my position: As far as I am concerned there will not 
be a change of license for Hobbit, at least not with the current wording of the 
GPLv3.

Just in case anyone cared.


Regards,
Henrik