Club Linux Coffs Harbour

The Free Software Foundation have released a first draft of version three of the venerable GNU General Public License.  This is the license under which much, if not most, of the worlds free (as in speech) software is distributed.  The GPL grants and preserves essential freedoms to all users of GPL-licensed software.

Groklaw has an excellent review of the changes to the GPL, including a side-by-side comparison of the differences between version two and the draft version three.  Most of these are clarifications and additional definitions of terms used in the license.  The notable changes are additional sections devoted to dealing with the threats of patents and Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to the freedoms of computer users.

(The FSF and GNU website is not surprisingly heavily slashdotted at the moment.)