The Free Software Foundation has published the GPLv3 Draft and they are asking people to check carefully for cases where the GPL 3 won't do the right thing, so that they can fix them before the license takes effect.

I'm not lawyer and I don't know much about laws but what I have understood from Richard Stallman's interview, the founder of the Free Software Foundation and author of the current license, at eWeek.com about the version 3.0 of the GPL license are these points:

  • GPLv3 brings an explicit patent license that covers any patents held by the program's developers, replacing the implicit license on which GPLv2 relied.

  • The draft license distinguishes between activities of a licensee that are permitted without limitation and activities that trigger additional requirements.

  • Version 3 contains provisions designed to reduce license incompatibility by making it easier for developers to combine code carrying non-GPL terms with GPL code.

  • The GPLv3 does provide developers with some forms of leverage that they can use against DRM (Digital Rights Management)


Stallman:
Our draft of GPLv3 makes clear that we do not entirely share the current enthusiasm of others in the free software community for including broad forms of patent retaliation in licenses. Theorists of patent retaliation have, in our view, overestimated the deterrent value of denying access to free software