GPLv2 vs GPLv3

von Liz Laf­fan | 01.09.2007

As of 2007, open source soft­ware is being used by almost 200,000 soft­ware pro­jects, inclu­ding rapidly gro­wing use in con­su­mer elec­tro­nics and mobile pho­nes. The vast majo­rity of open source pro­jects are licen­sed under the GPLv2, a highly influ­en­tial license whose inter­pre­ta­tion has been inten­sely deba­ted. This paper ana­ly­ses the under­pin­nings of open source cul­ture that are embo­died in GPLv2, dissects the terms and exami­nes the basis of deba­tes. The paper fur­ther exami­nes the new terms and dif­fe­ren­ces intro­du­ced by the new GPLv3 license and asses­ses the pro­bable impact of GPLv3 on the soft­ware mar­ket in gene­ral and the mobile indus­try in particular.

Con­t­ents

- The for­mi­da­ble growth tra­jec­tory of open source — Behind the sce­nes: under­stan­ding the cul­tu­ral roots of open source licen­sing — GPLv2: dissec­ting the fear, uncer­tainty and doubt
- GPLv3 under the hood: chan­ges and reper­cus­sions — GPLv2 vs GPLv3: dif­fe­ren­ces and deba­tes — To upgrade to GPLv3 or not to? — Appen­dix: Com­pa­ra­tive ana­ly­sis of GPL2 vs GPLv3


About the aut­hor Liz Laf­fan | Senior Ana­lyst

Liz has over 15 years expe­ri­ence in the Tech­no­logy Indus­try. Her career port­fo­lio com­pri­ses Euro­pean Telecoms Co’s, ISPs, Net­work Ope­ra­tors and start-​up Tech­no­logy com­pa­nies. Liz has exten­sive com­mer­cial nego­tia­tion and ven­dor manage­ment expe­ri­ence cou­pled with spe­cia­list bes­poke soft­ware licen­sing (pro­prietary and open source) know­ledge. Liz has a BA Busi­ness Stu­dies (Hons) and an MA in Inter­na­tio­nal Poli­ti­cal Eco­nomy from War­wick Uni­ver­sity, with a spe­cia­li­sa­tion on Trade Rela­ted Intel­lec­tual Pro­perty Rights.


About Visi­onMo­bile

Visi­onMo­bile Ltd. is a mar­ket know-​how ser­vices firm deli­ve­r­ing indus­try rese­arch and stra­te­gic advi­sory in the wire­less sec­tor. Visi­onMo­bile brings toge­ther pas­sio­nate people with indus­try and tech­no­logy know-​how and inno­va­tive thin­king.

www​.visi​onmo​bile​.com info@​visionmobile.​com Regis­te­red address: 84 Kir­k­land Ave­nue, Clay­hall, Ilford Essex IG5 0TN, UK +44 (0) 845 003 8742


Dis­clai­mer

Visi­onMo­bile belie­ves the state­ments con­tai­ned in this publi­ca­tion to be based upon infor­ma­tion that we con­sider relia­ble, but we do not rep­re­sent that it is accu­rate or com­plete and it should not be relied upon as such. Opi­ni­ons expres­sed are cur­rent opi­ni­ons as of the date appearing on this publi­ca­tion only and the infor­ma­tion, inclu­ding the opi­ni­ons con­tai­ned her­ein, are sub­ject to change wit­hout notice.

Use of this publi­ca­tion by any third party for wha­te­ver pur­pose should not and does not, absolve such third party from using due dili­gence in veri­fy­ing the publication’s con­t­ents. Visi­onMo­bile dis­claims all implied war­ran­ties, inclu­ding, wit­hout limi­ta­tion, war­ran­ties of mer­chan­ta­bi­lity or fit­ness for a par­ti­cu­lar pur­pose. Visi­onMo­bile, its affi­lia­tes and rep­re­sen­ta­ti­ves, shall have no lia­bi­lity for any direct, inci­den­tal, spe­cial, or con­se­quen­tial dama­ges or lost pro­fits, if any, suf­fe­red by any third party as a result of deci­si­ons made, or not made, or actions taken,
or not taken, based on this publi­ca­tion.

This report is pro­vi­ded for infor­ma­tio­nal pur­po­ses only. It does not con­sti­tute legal advice and should not be inter­pre­ted as such […].

Wei­ter­füh­rende Links:
http://​www​.visi​onmo​bile​.com/​r​e​s​e​a​r​c​h.php
http://​www​.linuxfor​de​vices​.com/​c​/​a​/​N​e​w​s​/​G​P​L​v​2​-​v​s​-​G​P​L​v​3​-​f​o​r​-​b​e​g​i​n​ners/
http://​gplv3​.fsf​.org/​r​m​s​-​w​h​y​.html

her­un­ter­la­den (PDF 3.1 MB)