Why is the GPL v3 so necessary ? [LWN.net]

Why is the GPL v3 so necessary ?

Posted Apr 25, 2005 21:53 UTC (Mon) by brouhaha (subscriber, #1698)
In reply to: Why is the GPL v3 so necessary ? by xav
Parent article: Eben Moglen's linux.conf.au keynote

One reason that's been bandied about is that it is increasingly common for software to be used as a web-based service, where instead of distributing the software, you set up a web site where people submit input to the software and get the output. Some such services are paid; some are at no charge. The issue is that many developers of GPL'd software don't want other people to take their software, make some enhancements to it, offer it only as a service, and not distribute the modified source code. With GPLv2, the requirement to redistribute the source code of a modified version is only triggered if you distribute the object code of that version. Essentially this allows the provider of such a service to make a proprietary non-free (as in speech) version of the software.

I'm sure there are other issues that the GPLv3 is intended to address as well; I think at least some of them have been discussed in prior articles here on LWN. The web service issue may not even be the most important of them, but it's the one I happen to remember.

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Why is the GPL v3 so necessary ?

Posted Apr 26, 2005 11:25 UTC (Tue) by copsewood (subscriber, #199) [Link]

Very good example.

Why is the GPL v3 so necessary ?

Posted Apr 27, 2005 1:55 UTC (Wed) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link]

Not to mention LWN :-)

Why is the GPL v3 so necessary ?

Posted Apr 27, 2005 9:34 UTC (Wed) by jonth (subscriber, #4008) [Link]

Is that true? Jonathan, is there a reason why the source for this site is not released under the GPL?

(Possibly no-one's ever asked for it!)

Releasing the code

Posted Apr 27, 2005 13:14 UTC (Wed) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link]

The site source has not been released for the simple reason that we have not had the time to do it. One of the things we'd have to do is examine the various external components we use (there's a few of them) and figure out which licence is compatible with them all; until then, I don't know which license we would use. We also need to do a security pass, set up distribution, mailing lists, etc. It remains on the list, with a reasonably high priority even.

But the list is full of high-priority tasks, starting with "get LWN out every week."

Releasing the code

Posted Apr 29, 2005 0:57 UTC (Fri) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link]

> But the list is full of high-priority tasks, starting with
> "get LWN out every week."

Which is as it should be, and worth every penny it is too.

Why is the GPL v3 so necessary ?

Posted Apr 28, 2005 3:53 UTC (Thu) by csamuel (✭ supporter ✭, #2624) [Link]

I don't believe so, I think he meant like SOAP web services where you are
effectively coding against an API, even though it's an RPC call.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Anyway, it was a very excellent presentation by Eben, I count myself very
lucky to have been there to hear it.

Chris