Weekly edition	Kernel	Security	Distributions	Contact Us	Search
Archives	Calendar	Subscribe	Write for LWN	LWN.net FAQ	Sponsors

Where was the original violation that kicked in GPLv2 Section 4?

Posted Aug 16, 2011 4:27 UTC (Tue) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313)
In reply to: Where was the original violation that kicked in GPLv2 Section 4? by rusty
Parent article: Android and the GPLv2 death penalty

the same can be said for all the 'sky is falling' anti GPLv2 stuff that was used to justify creating GPLv3

(Log in to post comments)

Posted Aug 16, 2011 6:30 UTC (Tue) by rusty (✭ supporter ✭, #26) [Link]

> the same can be said for all the 'sky is falling' anti GPLv2 stuff that
> was used to justify creating GPLv3

Agreed. And it *is* annoying that lawyers (on any side) won't publicly discuss details of how to circumvent the GPL, but I understand their reasons. I also don't know how many of these exploits were practical, rather than theoretical.

But those I know involved in the drafting, such as Harald Welte and Andrew Tridgell and various lawyers were reasonably happy with the overall result. Eventually, as a user, it's time to upgrade, and for me that time has come.

Cheers,
Rusty.

Please back up this claim.

Posted Aug 16, 2011 13:55 UTC (Tue) by bkuhn (subscriber, #58642) [Link]

Can you please give backup for the claim that those promoting GPLv3 used sky is falling anti-GPLv2 rhetoric? I don't think that FSF did, and I know I certainly didn't. There were some in the GPLv3 process who may have done so, I suppose, but I don't think you'll find that the majority of GPLv3 supporters agree with such people.

I still think GPLv2 is a good license. GPLv3 is a better one.

Where was the original violation that kicked in GPLv2 Section 4?

Posted Aug 16, 2011 14:29 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

That wasn't the justification for creating GPLv3 at all. There was very clear reasons stated throughout the very large drafting process involving many members in the volunteer community and several vendors. There has been many good advantages as a end result. Apache v2 license compatibility, explicit patent license and internationalization among the large items and other several smaller ones include more explicit terms when recovering from a license violation, dealing with bittorrent distribution etc. GPLv3 *is* a better license.