Torvolds on GPLv3

[Kym Farnik]

More fuel for the flames... :-)

http://blogs.zdnet.com/carroll/?p=1605&tag=nl.e622

<quote>
The anti-GPLv3 position of Torvalds, and now a large cross-section of
Linux kernel developers, appears to be hardening. In response to a
rebuttal by Eben Moglen, chief counsel for the Free Software
Foundation, re-invited the Linux kernel team to engage in the GPLv3
discussion process, Torvalds had this to say:

    I wonder why everybody but the FSF seems to know my email address,
but the FSF can't find it.

    If it has an anti-Tivo clause, I think it's bad. I've tried to
explain it to some people (the freedom of the _project_ is much too
important to let any license clause limit how you can use it), but
when other people did that, the FSF just explained how they had
mis-used the word "use".

    But I'm so fed up with the FSF right now that I'm not in the least
interested. There's no way in _hell_ they can claim that they don't
know my standpoint, so what are they even asking for?

Other quotes from Torvalds in the aforementioned article on NewsForge
provided what I thought to be a clear and distilled explanation of the
problem with the anti-DRM provisions in GPLv3:

    It's their hardware. I do _not_ want to ask for control of the
"environment" back in a license. I want the improvement to the
_software_, not the keys to the kingdom. The "environment" a program
runs in (or the medium it is distributed on) doesn't have to be open.
Just the program itself.

Exactly. The fact that TiVo opts to make it impossible to alter the
hardware / software combination on a TiVo system does not in the least
affect someone's ability to take Linux and make a hardware / software
combination that is NOT restrictive, nor alleviate TiVo's need to
distribute the source code for any changes made to the GPLv2-licensed
base.

The problem with finding a resolution to this conflict, however, is
that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is philosophically opposed to
making it easy to use open source software for proprietary purposes.
Asking Stallman (the founder of the Free Software Foundation as well
as its titular head) to compromise is like asking the Pope to be less
Catholic.

As I've discussed before, I believe that a middle ground between
proprietary and open source software is not just feasible, but very
desirable. Further, I think it would attract large numbers of open
source programmers who believe in the community development process,
but aren't interested in the more extreme views of the Free Software
Foundation (FSF). Unless I'm a complete oddity in the proprietary
software community, I think it would attract large numbers of
proprietary developers as well.

Frankly, a world where open source and proprietary software can work
together with minimal risk to either side doesn't just harness the
productive power of both groups to move the technology ball forward,
but creates a larger market for both products by granting them access
to parts of the software ecosystem to which they are currently denied.
Use of Linux in a TiVo system is clearly GOOD for Linux popularity,
however much the ideologically constrained might oppose the nature of
that popularity. I'd also argue that proprietary drivers are good for
Linux, something with which the FSF would disagree strongly.

Stallman and his Free Software Foundation represents a group that
wants to divide the fabric of innovation. Most programmers don't agree
with that. Why, then, give the FSF control over the next version of a
license that is so important to the open source movement?

Make a license that is BETTER than the GPL, one that continues the
benefits of a shared development model that requires changes to be
returned to the community while making it easier for that code to be
used anywhere - including in proprietary systems. Licensing
competition is not a bad thing, particularly if one of the licenses
enables more seamless mixing of the code domains currently kept
separate due to licensing restrictions.
</quote>

I don't think another F?OSS license is a good idea.  We already have a
significant range on licenses that cover just about every permutation
of Free or Open SS.  Authors getv to choose to their taste.

-- 
Regards, Kym Farnik
mailto:kym.farnik at gmail.com
mailto:kym at farnik.com
http://www.farnik.com
Phone:  +61 8 8265 5324
Mobile: 0438 014 007