GPLv3's secretive Additional Terms

[Romain Berrendonner]

Le 21/04/2010 11:55, opensource.*.nwo at neverbox.com a écrit :
> GPLv3's possibly most secretive addition is section 7. Additional Terms.
> The GNU site and the online world in general pretend like it doesn't
> exist. I'm especially baffed by the statement "when you convey a copy of
> a covered work, you may at your option remove any additional permissions
> from that copy."
>
> GNU's attitude towards this section (not mentioning it in one word in their
> site except in the license itself) made it almost impossible to find
> software authors who use it. The few who do, write crazy things like "by
> section 7 I am cancelling section 6 with its leftover requirement."

Hi,

There is nothing secretive about section 7 !

First, it is the mechanism that is used to implement the LGPL version 3 
and the GCC runtime exception version 3.1 on top of GPL version 3 - two 
widespread licenses.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.txt
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception.html

It is also a mechanism that is useful for people distributing software 
in the course of their business (e.g. if they want to make some 
warranties on the software)

The statement allowing removal of any additional permissions simply 
allows you to get back to the GPL, offering at the same time a 
protection against junk "additional permissions" clauses.

-- 
Romain