Distributors lose their rights when they violate GPLv2, but the Free Software Foundation is more forgiving in its license enforcement to encourage continued participation in the free software community. GPLv3 has improved termination provisions to codify this approach, giving developers one more reason to upgrade.
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Announcing our license recommendations guide
http://www.fsf.org –
Today I'm happy to share something we've been working on for a little while: “How to choose a license for your own work” is a comprehensive set of license recommendations for new projects. This page explains what factors are important to consider when making licensing decisions, and suggests specific licenses for different scenarios.
Read more »Proprietary Software Licensing Produces No New Value In Society
http://ebb.org –
Bradley M. Kuhn's essay compares complex financial instruments, real estate, poker playing and proprietary licensing and their pros and cons to the society.
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Category: Philosophy Tags:
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Could Free Software Exist Without Copyright?
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com –
GNU GPL actually *depends* on copyright, an intellectual monopoly, in order to spread intellectual freedom. Moreover, it seems to doom free software into a kind of symbiosis with copyright, forcing it to remain a supporter of that monopoly, since without it, the approach used to make the GPL so powerful would not work.
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FSFE’s statement on the relation between standards and patents at WIPO SCP/15
http://blogs.fsfe.org –
Software standards must be implementable in any software or business model, including those based on Free Software. When patents are included in software standards, they need to be licensed in a manner that doesn’t restrict their implementation in any way. Besides the absence of any other restriction, that means royalty-free licensing to any party implementing the standard.
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UK Adopts Open Government License for everything: Why it’s good and what it means
http://eaves.ca –
In almost every aspect the license, the UK government will manage its “intellectual property” by setting the default to be open and free.
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Category: Government Tags:
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When a company asks for your copyright
http://www.fsf.org –
RMS: Companies that develop free software and release it under the GNU GPL sometimes distribute some copies of the code in other ways. If they distribute the exact same code under a different license to certain users that pay for this, typically permitting including the code in proprietary programs, we call it "selling exceptions".
Read more »Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory... Ain't
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com –
One of the inescapable facts of free software is that it involves a lot of law - far more than innocent hackers might expect when they settle down for a light bit of coding.
Read more »Glibc finally free software
http://www.h-online.com –
Code from 1985 under an old Sun licence and included in glibc has been re-licensed by Oracle America under a BSD licence
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Could this Lawsuit Undermine the GNU GPL?
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com –
As I've noted before, it's pretty well established that the GNU GPL stands up in the courts: gone are the days when detractors of copyleft could claim it would “never work”. But the GPL is still under attack, only in more subtle ways, so the open source world can't just sit back and relax.
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Penguin program promises license vaccination
http://www.theregister.co.uk –
A program to help keep software and device makers on the right side of open-source licensing law has been unveiled by the Linux Foundation. The Open Compliance Program includes tools, training, consulting, and self-assessment to help you comply with the myriad of open-source licenses.
Read more »Mozilla Would Like to Pick Your Brain - Revising the MPL
http://www.groklaw.net –
Can we talk about licenses for a bit? It's something I've wanted to talk to you about for a long time, and it's a good time for it, because Mozilla is redrafting its license and would like your input.
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GPLv3-licensed Open Source now dominates at Google Code
http://blog.internetnews.com –
According to data presented by DiBona, Google's Open Source programs manager, the GPLv3 license now represents more than half of the GPL licensed code that Google hosts on its Google Code site. What DiBona's data shows is that developers are embracing GPLv3 and using it for their project in growing numbers.
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A CIO’s Quick Guide To Open Source Licenses
http://itexpertvoice.com –
One great benefit of using Linux, Apache, and other open source software is that you can modify the code to make it perfect for your business. But open source licensing restricts how you distribute the modifications. Here’s what a CIO needs to know about open source licenses -- making this a suitable document to show to your boss, who's been asking for a no-nonsense overview.
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Open Core and OSI
http://www.groklaw.net –
Simon Phipps is correct: Open Core is Bad for You, the "you" here being you and me, end users: The open core model exploits open source and is a game on software freedom. The fact the game is played does not invalidate software freedom, but it suggests we need to revisit definitions and make the game harder to play.
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