Linux

Linus Torvalds Says "No" to GPLv3

...preferring the second version of the license

By Daniel Voicu, Linux Editor

9th of January 2008, 15:29 GMT

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Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, has no plans to license it under GPLv3 anytime soon.

Torvalds criticized the third version of the GNU General Public License from the time it was just a draft, and, in an interview for Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, he said that he preferred GPLv2. The interview is a part of a first series of podcasts called "Open Voices", featuring the top ten open source and Linux leaders.

Torvalds says that GPLv3 actually reflects the goals of the Free Software Foundation, while GPLv2 is much closer to what he thinks a license should do. That's why he will remain at the second version.

GPL v3 also meant that there was no longer just one license for Linux

and other open-source code. Linus Torvalds said about the issues that might appear using GPLv3: "That means that now, suddenly, you maybe can't share code simply because of license issues. But that's not something new; we've always had that with other licenses". He continued with the following statement:"One of the few reasons GPL v3 might be useful was if there were lots of external code that were important and worthwhile and licensed under GPL v3. To avoid the licensing incompatibility, some kernel people could re-license to version 3 - not because it's the better license, but because it opens up code to us."

Torvalds said that even if he wanted to change the license, he could not do it on his own anymore, because he accepted code from other persons. To change the license, he would have to convince every copyright owner to move on to GPLv3.

Talking about patent trolls, Linus said: "Yeah, they're kind of like the terrorists that you can't bomb because there's nothing there to bomb. There are just these individuals that don't have anything to lose. That breaks the whole cold war model and seems to be one of the reasons that even big companies are now starting to realize that patents and software are a really bad idea."

TAGS:

GPL | GPLv3 | Linus Torvalds

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