ARTICLE · 18 JULY 2007

Final Version Of GPL Version 3 Is Released – Significant Changes Made To Leading Open Source License

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman

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On June 29, 2007, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) released version 3 of the GNU General Public License (GPL). GPL version 3 ("GPL3") updates GPL version 2 ("GPL2"), which has been in use since 1991.

United StatesMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment

James Gatto

Introduction

On June 29, 2007, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) released version 3 of the GNU General Public License (GPL). GPL version 3 ("GPL3") updates GPL version 2 ("GPL2"), which has been in use since 1991. Some of the need to update GPL2 results from significant changes that have occurred, since 1991, with respect to technological changes relating to the software industry, the meteoric rise in the number and use of software patents, the development of digital rights management (DRM) tools, the number of other open source licenses that have arisen and certain incompatibilities between them and the GPL, and the desire to "internationalize" the GPL license terms and make them less U.S. copyright law centric. Not surprisingly then, some of the most significant changes relate to these topics.

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