deanlinkous
24-March-2007, 01:00
Loved this one!
There's been a lot of talk about GPL version 3: whether it goes too far to be acceptable to business, whether the Linux kernel developers will ever switch to it, whether our community will fork or undergo unrest over it. Much of that talk is based on a poor understanding of the GPL3 terms, and with release of the new license imminent, it's time to clear that up.
Some of the bad publicity about GPL3 is deliberate. A particularly bad article by Dan Lyons of Forbes magazine painted an offensive picture of GPL3 and Richard Stallman, even accusing Stallman of having sex with flowers (!!!) after Lyons failed to comprehend a scientific joke [1 (http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/22/16651#f1)]. The article was "pitched" to Lyons and Forbes [2 (http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/22/16651#f2)] by then OSDL director Stuart Cohen. ODSL was abruptly shut down by its own members, eliminating Cohen's job, after Lyons' article and another odious incident [3 (http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/22/16651#f3)]. To save face, it was announced that OSDL would be "merged" with Free Standards Group.Confused objectors to GPL3 state that it won't allow the Linux kernel to be used on a system that implements DRM, and that GPL3 will compel manufacturers to "give away their keys". If Linus Torvalds and the kernel developers still believe this, they're wrong.
read more of this article (http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/22/16651)
There's been a lot of talk about GPL version 3: whether it goes too far to be acceptable to business, whether the Linux kernel developers will ever switch to it, whether our community will fork or undergo unrest over it. Much of that talk is based on a poor understanding of the GPL3 terms, and with release of the new license imminent, it's time to clear that up.
Some of the bad publicity about GPL3 is deliberate. A particularly bad article by Dan Lyons of Forbes magazine painted an offensive picture of GPL3 and Richard Stallman, even accusing Stallman of having sex with flowers (!!!) after Lyons failed to comprehend a scientific joke [1 (http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/22/16651#f1)]. The article was "pitched" to Lyons and Forbes [2 (http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/22/16651#f2)] by then OSDL director Stuart Cohen. ODSL was abruptly shut down by its own members, eliminating Cohen's job, after Lyons' article and another odious incident [3 (http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/22/16651#f3)]. To save face, it was announced that OSDL would be "merged" with Free Standards Group.Confused objectors to GPL3 state that it won't allow the Linux kernel to be used on a system that implements DRM, and that GPL3 will compel manufacturers to "give away their keys". If Linus Torvalds and the kernel developers still believe this, they're wrong.
read more of this article (http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/22/16651)