GPL v2 or v3?

[[RBI]Karl Ranseier]

Yesterday the FSF officially released the GNU Public License, version 3.0. There is a heated debate going on in the F/OSS scene as to whether or not the GPL v3 is too restrictive (example for the latter standpoint: Click me.)

What is the Nexuiz developers' standpoint? Will Nexuiz remain GPL v2, or switch to the GPL v3?

[esteel]

Its not easy to CHANGE the license as ALL copyright owners would have to agree to such a change. Also i can't find a claim about a rule for a specific version nor the usual 'v X or any later version' anywere so i can't even tell you which version is legally active for Nexuiz right now.. But as the v2 was included with Nexuiz i'd say its legally bound to that one and thus you need the ok from everyone contributing more then 'short obvious' code/media fragments to agree to a change.

[Psychcf]

crap now I've got to go specify version two in ALL of the files in psych desktop... be back in an hour.....

[esteel]

Why? Do you think v2 is better?

[Psychcf]

Why? Do you think v2 is better?

Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modified versions of the software inside them, although the manufacturer can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible with the aim of protecting users' freedom to change the software. The systematic pattern of such abuse occurs in the area of products for individuals to use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable. Therefore, we have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the practice for those products. If such problems arise substantially in other domains, we stand ready to extend this provision to those domains in future versions of the GPL, as needed to protect the freedom of users.

I am in favor of all the improvements being merged back into the trunk, but if a company has to make their improvements available to everyone they would most likely go to another OS like windows CE for example. I really would like to see what happens if the kernel goes v3 and what tivo will do with it.

[RoKenn]

I am in favor of all the improvements being merged back into the trunk, but if a company has to make their improvements available to everyone they would most likely go to another OS like windows CE for example. I really would like to see what happens if the kernel goes v3 and what tivo will do with it.

Then let Tivo go with Windows CE. If they lock down their hardware so that you can't run modified versions of the software anymore (which they even publish as GPL v2 requires) they basic exploit a hole in the GPL.

One day you might only be able to buy TCPA'ed hardware which won't let you run any free software anymore.

http://www.againsttcpa.com/

I voted for GPL v3, but of course it's the developers´ decision, as
they invested their time,sweat and blood. (Well in case of Nexuiz mostly blood )

(I plan to put my software under v3, but that's a useless piece of crap anyway, so noone cares )

[divVerent]

The thing is, we have to check if we even have the choice. Part of the code is bound by the licenses by Id Software. If they put the "GPL2 or later" license in it, this applies to Nexuiz too and one can at any time switch to GPL3, but on the other hand never change its license to GPL2-only. However, if only one piece is licensed as GPL2-only, the whole package can't be changed to GPL3 and will stay a mix of GPL2-or-later and GPL2-only code.