Open Source License Up For Revision

The Free Software Foundation has announced plans to revise the General Public License (GPL), which covers many open source applications including the Linux operating system. The license has not been revised since 1991, long before Linux and other open source applications had been implemented widely. Now, according to Eben Moglen, the foundation’s general counsel, “The big boys, corporations and governments, have far more reason to be interested and concerned.” The GPL and the Free Software Foundation are the creations of Richard Stallman, an unwavering critic of proprietary software and the author of much of the source code that led to the Linux operating system.

Stallman has used the license and the foundation to foster what he says are the four principles of software: the ability to use, study, copy, and modify it. Stallman acknowledged that with the success of open source applications in recent years, the task of revising the GPL is complicated by patent issues, which must allow open source and proprietary software to run on the same systems. A first draft of the new GPL will be presented at MIT in mid-January. The revision process is expected to be completed by the end of 2006, with the Free Software Foundation making final decisions about changes.

New York Times, 30 November 2005 (registration req’d)