The FSF released the third draft of the GNU General Public License version 3, today. The third draft was originally scheduled to be released in August of last year, but they delayed the draft in order to add some language to the license in response to the controversial deal between Novell and Microsoft. They plan to have one additional draft review period after this one, and then release the final version of the GPLv3.
I won’t comment on the details of the license yet. I’m still in the process of reviewing the new version and accompanying documentation, both in my role on the FSF’s Committee A (appointed as advisors to the GPLv3 revision process), and as a foundation board member with primary legal responsibility for two large open source projects currently licensed under the GPLv2. I’ll write more on the changes in the current draft over the next few days.
I will say this much: I’m a believer in free software, and in the importance of free software in advancing the freedoms of individuals. But I’m beginning to lose confidence in the FSF as the primary defender of free software principles. The image they’re projecting right now is more of an ineffectual nanny slapping the wrists of naughty children than it is of the bold community leader confidently striding on to the visionary future of the free software movement. It’s unfortunate. Maybe we’ll see change in this draft and the next. Maybe.