The first GNU General Public License (GPL) was released in 1989 by Richard Stallman. It was a free software license written specifically for the GNU Project. The GPL is the most successful and most used copyleft license. Copyleft is a pun on the term, copyright. While a copyright prevents unauthorized people from copying, modifying, and distributing works, a copyleft removes all of these restrictions.

There was a need for creating the third version of the GPL. The world has changed greatly since the release of the last version 16 years ago. As Stallman stated in his webcast from the Free Software Foundation’s headquarters in Boston:

“They thought of new ways to separate users from their freedom since GPL version 2 came out … so we have had to find ways of blocking them from doing this.”

GPLv3 includes the following:

• the means to deal with situations that cause digital rights management (DRM) issues with GPL code
• internationalization terminology for global usage
• compatibility with the Apache 2.0 license

Richard Stallman (left) has been a champion for free software since the 1970′s. When Brian Reid placed restrictions in licensing his Scribe application, Stallman stated that “the prospect of charging money for software was a crime against humanity”.

There has been a great deal of opposition to GPLv3. In fact, the license was the culmination of an 18 month battle to create it. Still, there are people who advise against incorporating GPLv3 in your projects.

Stallman responds to the critics by stating that “they usually disagree cause they disagree with the GPL’s goal of guaranteeing freedom for every user. Defend the users’ freedom, don’t listen to them. We have to defend the users’ freedom against these threats. GPLv3 will help our community in many ways and I urge people to upgrade to it.”

You can download a GPLv3 license from www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.

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