The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today released the fourth and “last call” draft for version 3 of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), the world's most widely used free software license. The Foundation will hear comments on the latest draft for 29 days, and expects to officially publish the license on Friday, June 29, 2007.

"Breaking from the KDE 4.0 release event right now is word that Trolltech will be releasing Qt to be released under the GPLv3 license. An official announcement will be made by Trolltech regarding this GPLv2 to GPLv3 license update on Monday, January 21, 2008..."

Versant Corporation, an industry leader in specialized data management software,
announces that the open source license used for the db4o product offering is
being upgraded to the GPLv3 license. Upgrade to the GPLv3 license assures
compatibility with other open source products, thereby widening db4o's potential
scope for adoption.

The GPLv3 debates are drawing to a close. By the end of the year, it may have become reality. Whether or not the Linux kernel team will adopt the new license, however is still up for debate. Linus Torvalds is not as fervently anti-GPLv3 as he was in earlier renditions of the license, but he still isn't ready to support a wholesale move to it, either.

"For all that a great deal of attention was given to the arrival of the GPLv3 (Gnu General Public License, version 3), few software developers announced plans to move their programs to this new license. Now, open-source programmers are beginning to give the new license a try."

You sometimes hear people trying to dismiss the GNU General Public License, the most popular of the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) licenses, as being unenforceable. While there is a long list of companies that have been alleged to infringe the license, none of these companies seem to agree this license is unenforceable and opt to settle out of court rather than challenge the license.

Adoption of GPLv3 has surpassed many older licenses in a short time, according to license watcher Black Duck Software.

A lot of discussion goes into how to talk about FLOSS - free libre open-source software (for starters how about not using strange acronyms that sound like something you keep with your toothbrush). A recent Earthweb article discusses this topic, pointing out some of the mistakes that are made.

I still continue to find articles on the internet downplaying the seemingly normal and sweeping adoption and acceptance of the GPLv3 license. This should point out a few things that indicate that GPLv3 is "here to stay".