[OpenISO] Changing the GPL (was: The problem of patents in the context of IT standards)

[Henrik Sundberg]

2008/6/7 Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch>:
<lots of snipping>
> Now typical RANDZ licenses are GPL-incompatible, but there is no
> reason of principle that would prevent creating a software license
> which has all the properties that people want from the GPL and
> which in addition is compatible with typical RANDZ patent licenses.

But it wouldn't protect the 4 freedoms would it?

> For this reason I feel that the demand to fix the incompatibility
> between international standardization and the GPL on the side of
> international standardization alone is not really fully justified.
> I'm opposed to demanding of politicians that they must fix the GPL
> compatibility problem.

I see both sides here. But somethings got to give. Wasn't the intention of
patents, copyrights and standards to benefit the society?
Companies are abusing this all the time (fair use is not considered
fair anymore).
Why should any government endorse standards that are not good for the society?

> Rather, let's try to get a legal guarantee that international
> standards will always have at least RANDZ patent licenses, with a
> precise set of minimal requirements that these RANDZ patent licenses
> must satisfy.

A good start. But not enough, I suppose.

> I'm confident that if we can achieve that, the FSF will agree to
> update the GPL to create a new "version 4" which will be compatible
> with all patent licenses that satisfy the conditions of that legal
> guarantee.

I don't think so. Version 4 would not guarantee the four freedoms anymore.
Removing the sublicensing would make the license non free, since it does
not give your users' users the same freedom as your users. And this is, IMO,
a fundamental part of the GPL.

> My goal with OpenISO.org is to apply and thereby promote a very
> strict set of criteria which includes GPL compatibility.

I think that's the only way.

/$