Changes to GPL licence ?

[GhostShip]

It seems that there is possibly a more militant train of though being harboured by some members of the free software foundation.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9225821/

The free software foundation said on Tuesday it would start adapting rules for development and use of free software by including penalties against those who patent software or use anti-piracy technology.
Software patents are clearly a menace to society and innovation. We like this to be more explicit,” Greve said.

Free software needs to be licensed under specific rules to guarantee that it can be freely studied, copied, modified, reused, shared and redistributed
“We’re fundamentally opposed to DRM. We think it’s a dead end for society,” Greve said, adding all software should be free to use and that artists could be paid for their films and music by a general ’taxation’ on Internet connections.

Its nice to see they are finally telling the fat cat software industry that they will  no longer be allowed to profit from the work done by those folks generous enough to freely donate there work for the benefit of all.

About time too for too long they have been able to use free software and patent some if the ideas behind it in a rather sneaky manner, this should put a stop to this once and for all

[KiLO]

I think even with GPL licensing, there is no stopping others from using Open Sourced code in their closed source programs and making money off of it. Unless it's a blatantly obvious ripoff of a know Open Source program.

[GhostShip]

Its officialy software freedom day today  

http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/

Software Freedom Day is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source Software. Over 200 teams are registered so far, and they have plans to celebrate Free Software at schools, universities, parks, and many other public places.

Well however they celebrate big thank you  to all the free/open source software folks from us all  

[KM]

it is? erm...

well, they have obviously failed in their goal to educate people about it, i didn't even know there was such a thing

[GhostShip]

Hmm I thought that myself but felt I better be polite and spread the word , maybe next year will pick up a little  

[KiLO]

Its officialy software freedom day today  

http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/

Wait, does that mean free pirated/stolen software or just free software?

That needs to be specified before I go running into my local electronics store and start grabbing all the software I can like it's an all-you-can-eat buffet lunch at Chow's Chinese.

Btw, don't know if that place actually exists, if it does, don't sue me.

[GhostShip]

More items of interest regarding this subject

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1856396,00.asp

Contrary to recent reports that the next version of the GPL would include penalties against those who patent software or use anti-piracy technology, no such decisions have actually been made.

According to FSF (Free Software Foundation) Europe president Georg Greve, "It appears that the journalist at Reuters was somewhat confused in terms of separating speculation and fact, so he ended up publishing speculation as fact and largely ignoring the facts."
Specifically, the new GNU GPL (General Public License) may contain a patent retaliation clause.