Relevant text from FSF's "GPLv3 Final Discussion Draft Rationale",
as released on 2007-05-31. I (Bradley M. Kuhn) went through FSF's "Third Discussion Draft Rationale", and pasted in any sections that seemed useful to this tutorial. There is a lot of interesting material in that particular rationale document, although much of it is probably too verbose for inclusion. I expect much of this will need to be cut out. The raw material used for this commit can be found here: http://gplv3.fsf.org/gpl3-dd4-guide.html Specifically, a copy of the LaTeX sources are here: http://gplv3.fsf.org/gpl3-dd4-rationale.tex As I pasted in this text, I added FIXME's sometimes where it seemed the text might need work. However, I was much more extensive in just pasting here, so there's a big editing job now. As mentioned in a previous commit, the whole GPLv3 chapter is now completely disjoint with all this pasting. Finally, note that this material was originally copyrighted and licensed as follows: Copyright © 2007, Free Software Foundation, Inc. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. However, I am hereby relicensing this material to CC-By-SA-4.0, with the verbal permission from John Sullivan, Executive Director of the FSF, which was given to me during a conference call on Wednesday 12 February 2014. I also confirmed that relicensing permission on IRC with johnsu01 today.
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gpl-lgpl.tex
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gpl-lgpl.tex
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@ -2654,6 +2654,35 @@ We believe that these provisions, taken together, are a minimalist set of
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terms sufficient to protect the free software community against the threat of
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invasive para-copyright.
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Large enterprise users of free software often contract with non-employee
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developers, often working offsite, to make modifications intended for
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the user's private or internal use, and often arrange with other
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companies to operate their data centers. Whether GPLv2 permits these
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activities is not clear and may depend on variations in copyright law.
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The practices seem basically harmless, so we have decided to make it
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clear they are permitted.
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GPLv3 now gives an explicit permission for a client to provide a copy of
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its modified software to a contractor exclusively for that contractor to
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modify it further, or run it, on behalf of the client. However, the
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client can only exercise this control over its own copyrighted changes
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to the GPL-covered program. The parts of the program it obtained from
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other contributors must be provided to the contractor with the usual GPL
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freedoms.
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This permission is stated in section 2. It permits a user to convey
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covered works to contractors operating exclusively on the user's behalf,
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under the user's direction and control, and to require the contractors
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to keep the user's copyrighted changes confidential, but only if the
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contractor is limited to acting on the user's behalf, just as the user's
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employees would have to act.
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The strict conditions in this provision are needed so that it cannot be
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twisted to fit other activities, such as making a program available to
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users or customers. By making the limits on this provision very narrow,
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we ensure that in all other cases the contractor gets the full freedoms
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of the GPL.
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\section{GPLv3~\S3: What Hath DMCA Wrought}
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\label{GPLv3s3}
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@ -2713,6 +2742,11 @@ any private or public parties from invoking DMCA-like laws against
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users who escape technical restriction measures implemented by GPL'd
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software.
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This section shields users from being subjected to liability under
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anti-circumvention law for exercising their rights under the GPL, so far as
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the GPL can do so. Some readers seem to have assumed that this provision
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contains a prohibition on DRM; it does not (no part of GPLv3 forbids DRM).
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\section{GPLv3~\S4: Verbatim Copying}
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% FIXME: there appear to be minor changes here in later drafts, fix that.
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@ -3046,6 +3080,34 @@ not only individual purchasers of User Products but also all
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organizational purchasers of those same kinds of products, regardless of
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their intended use of the products.
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we have replaced the Magnuson-Moss
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reference with three sentences that encapsulate the judicial and
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administrative principles established over the past three decades in the
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United States concerning the Magnuson-Moss consumer product definition.
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First, we state that doubtful cases are resolved in favor of coverage
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under the definition. Second, we indicate that the words ``normally
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used'' in the consumer product definition refer to a typical or common
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use of a class of product, and not the status of a particular user or
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expected or actual uses by a particular user. Third, we make clear that
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the existence of substantial non-consumer uses of a product does not
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negate a determination that it is a consumer product, unless such
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non-consumer uses represent the only significant mode of use of that
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product.
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It should be clear from these added sentences that it is the general
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mode of use of a product that determines objectively whether or not it
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is a consumer product. One could not escape the effects of the User
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Products provisions by labeling what is demonstrably a consumer product
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in ways that suggest it is ``for professionals,'' for example, contrary
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to what some critics of Draft 3 have suggested.
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We have made one additional change to the User Products provisions of
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section 6. In Draft 3 we made clear that the requirement to provide
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Installation Information implies no requirement to provide warranty or
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support for a work that has been modified or installed on a User
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Product. The Final Draft adds that there is similarly no requirement to
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provide warranty or support for the User Product itself.
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%FIXME: This probably needs work to be brought into clarity with tutorial,
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%next three paragarphs.
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@ -3923,6 +3985,35 @@ distributing software under GPLv3 if you make an agreement like the
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Microsoft-Novell deal in the future. This will prevent other distributors
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from trying to make other deals like it.
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The main reason for this is tactical. We believe we can do more to
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protect the community by allowing Novell to use software under GPL
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version 3 than by forbidding it to do so. This is because of
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paragraph 6 of section 11 (corresponding to paragraph 4 in Draft 3).
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It will apply, under the Microsoft/Novell deal, because of the coupons
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that Microsoft has acquired that essentially commit it to participate
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in the distribution of the Novell SLES GNU/Linux system.
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Microsoft is scrambling to dispose of as many Novell SLES coupons as
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possible prior to the adoption of GPLv3. Unfortunately for Microsoft,
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those coupons bear no expiration date, and paragraph 6 has no cut-off
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date. Through its ongoing distribution of coupons, Microsoft will
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have procured the distribution of GPLv3-covered programs as soon as
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they are included in Novell SLES distributions, thereby extending
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patent defenses to all downstream recipients of that software by
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operation of paragraph 6.
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A secondary reason is to avoid affecting other kinds of agreements for
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other kinds of activities. We have tried to take care in paragraph 7
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to distinguish pernicious deals of the Microsoft/Novell type from
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business conduct that is not particularly harmful, but we cannot be
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sure we have entirely succeeded. There remains some risk that other
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unchangeable past agreements could fall within its scope.
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In future deals, distributors engaging in ordinary business practices
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can structure the agreements so that they do not fall under paragraph
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7. However, it will block Microsoft and other patent aggressors from
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further such attempts to subvert parts of our community.
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A software patent forbids the use of a technique or algorithm, and its
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existence is a threat to all software developers and users. A patent
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holder can use a patent to suppress any program which implements the
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