This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by Samuel Kvarnbrink. Original Post: Upcoming GPL to punish software patenting? Feed Title: monkey in the middle Feed URL: http://www.contegix.com/rss/feed.xml Feed Description: Ruby, Rails, Macs, PostgreSQL and life in general. Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by Samuel Kvarnbrink Latest Posts From monkey in the middle

In this article, European FSF President Georg Greve hints that the next version of the GNU General Public License will contain clauses that explicitly withdraw all rights to use the software for users (or rather, corporations) that enforce software patents or digital rights management (DRM). In essence, this would mean that companies such as Amazon, with their ridiculous “one-click shopping” patent, are to be kept from using software such as Linux, in case the kernel team decides to release their future work under the upcoming license.

Personally, I think the proposed clauses are more or less ridiculous. Even though I’m flamboyantly opposed to the whole idea of software patents and DRM-enforcing vendor lock-in, I think the proposed changes are nothing but depressing examples of zealotry. Given that so many developers (including me) already choose to release their software under more liberal licenses because of the GPL’s obnoxiousness, and that many large FOSS projects are backed by software patent holders (such as IBM), I think the proposed new version simply will die from starvation.

But even though I dislike the idea of making the GPL even more restrictive, I still want to achieve the same thing as the FSF. But personally, I think that goal should be achieved by approaching legislators, boycotting evil vendors and making noise in the public – not by creating ultra-obnoxious licenses that won’t see any general adoption whatsoever.