Welcome to a better GPL (Re: GPL v3)

[Philippe Verdy]

Thanks for notifying that. It was a good reason for me to apply for a 
supporting membership at the FSF. I expect that now the GPL will be 
strenghened so that it will work also within the definitions now legally 
enforced under the WIPO.

This means that existing limitations of the GPL that are currently weakening 
it in some areas (because it was too much focused on details of the US laws 
that have no equivalent elsewhere, and because the GPL was still not valid 
under its existing form to make it a legally enforcable binding contract 
between the user and the original author) must be addressed.

I hope that the GPLv3 revizion process will consider the need to support and 
approve translations that are required in some areas, and that at least the 
five working languages of the WIPO will be approved and published (English, 
Spanish, French, Arabic, Simplified Chinese), even if they contain clear 
statements that specify which language will be used in case of conflicts.

I also hope that the terms will be better defined, according to the 
international standards (as seen in the treaties and conventions managed by 
WIPO). This means that the GPL won't be abused as much easily as it is now 
by commercial companies that only recognize the WIPO agreements and national 
laws, and thus consider the GPL void as they consider they are not bound to 
the terms of a contract that uses an unspecified law.

Let's give at least equal rights for free software authors, and not place 
them under the dictact of WIPO members. We do need the recognition of the 
GPL by WIPO and by all the applicable laws in its 182 member countries.

Also, let's reconciliate the FSF, the open-source initiative, and the 
Creative Commons (CC-BY-SA, but not CC-BY-NC and not CC-BY-ND) with a common 
contract that could be used as an upgrade for all of them. This will give 
more strength to all those projects, by placing them under a single licence, 
instead of having to mix several agreements with lots of legal problems.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ian Lance Taylor" <ian at airs.com>
> For those who didn't see it elsewhere, the FSF is starting a process
> to revise the GPL.  They are inviting participation and comments.
>
>    http://gplv3.fsf.org