Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

Posted Sep 25, 2006 20:56 UTC (Mon) by steelpillow (guest, #40703)
In reply to: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3 by BrucePerens
Parent article: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

It seems to me that RMS has not succeeded in involving the kernel developers even in believing that there is a problem to solve - at least not a licensing problem - never mind in how to solve it.

In the end it is content (present or future) which sells the OS, and if GPL3 blocks out the content providers then GPL3-ed stuff will just not get used.

There are content-rich restrictive OS out there. The content providers can afford to just ignore us. To bring them in to line will, I suspect, need more than just a rewritten license. There are many growing movements for restriction-free content: musicians posting free downloads, ogg vorbis, and so on. The black hats are evolving a coordinated strategy against all this. We need to do the same. Maybe GPL3 will have its day - I sure hope so. But is now really the right moment? I think the gut instinct of the kernel developers is "not yet."

Someone commented that GPL3 is in essence political. Maybe. At any rate, one key ingredient of successful politics is persuasion. Another is timing.

Guy