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

[Norbert Bollow]

Henrik Sundberg <storangen at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2008/6/7 Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch>:
> > 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.

The GPL is designed to guarantee the users' users freedoms by having
the necessary permissions travel with the program.

What I'm suggesting is that this is not the only way in which these
freedoms can be guaranteed.  I believe that if RANDZ permissions are
legally mandated for ideas that are documented in standards, then
these legally mandated permissions no longer need to travel with the
program, because these permissions reach every user anyway due to the
permissions having force of law.  That IMO would be an elegant
solution to the problem of RANDZ licenses typically being written in
a way that is incompatible with the concept of permissions travelling
with the program along any number of "hops" from user to user.

Greetings,
Norbert