Changeset - 2b98827e568e
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Bradley Kuhn (bkuhn) - 10 years ago 2014-03-20 17:20:12
bkuhn@ebb.org
Missing period, and remove FIXME that's now fixed.
1 file changed with 1 insertions and 4 deletions:
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gpl-lgpl.tex
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@@ -2664,196 +2664,193 @@ relate sections\footnote{These sections of the USC are often referred to as
 
from circumventing technological measures that implement DRM\@.  Since this
 
is part of copyright law and the GPL is primarily a copyright license, and
 
since what the DMCA calls ``circumvention'' is simply ``modifying the
 
software'' under the GPL, GPLv3 must disclaim such anti-circumvention
 
provisions are not applicable to the GPLv3'd software.  GPLv3\S3 shields
 
users from being subjected to liability under anti-circumvention law for
 
exercising their rights under the GPL, so far as the GPL can do so.
 

	
 
First, GPLv3\S3\P1 declares that no GPL'd program is part of an effective
 
technological protection measure, regardless of what the program does.  Early
 
drafts of GPLv3\S3\P1 referred directly to the DMCA, but the final version
 
instead includes instead an international legal reference to
 
anticircumvention laws enacted pursuant to the 1996 WIPO treaty and any
 
similar laws.  Lawyers outside the USA worried that a USA statutory reference
 
could be read as indicating a choice for application of USA law to the
 
license as a whole.  While the FSF did not necessarily agree with that view,
 
the FSF decided anyway to refer to the WIPO treaty rather than DMCA, since
 
several national anticircumvention laws were (or will likely be) structured
 
more similarly to the anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA in their
 
implementation of WIPO\@.  Furthermore, the addition of ``or similar laws''
 
provides an appropriate catch-all.
 

	
 
Furthermore, GPLv3\S3\P2 states precisely that a conveying party waives the
 
power to forbid circumvention of technological measures only to the extent
 
that such circumvention is accomplished through the exercise of GPL rights in
 
the conveyed work.  GPLv3\S3\P2 makes clear that the referenced ``legal
 
rights'' are specifically rights arising under anticircumvention law.  and
 
refers to both the conveying party's rights and to third party rights, as in
 
some cases the conveying party will also be the party legally empowered to
 
enforce or invoke rights arising under anticircumvention law.
 

	
 
These disclaimers by each licensor of any intention to use GPL'd software to
 
stringently control access to other copyrighted works should effectively
 
prevent any private or public parties from invoking DMCA-like laws against
 
users who escape technical restriction measures implemented by GPL'd
 
software.
 

	
 
\section{GPLv3~\S4: Verbatim Copying}
 
\label{GPLv3s4}
 

	
 
GPLv3~\S4 is a revision of GPLv2\~S1 (as discussed in \S~\ref{GPLv2s1} of
 
this tutorial).   There are almost no changes to this section from the
 
GPLv2\~S1, other than to use the new defined terms.
 

	
 
The only notable change of ``a fee'' to ``any price or no price'' in the
 
first sentence of GPLv3\S4\P2.  The GPLv2\S1\P1 means that the GPL permits
 
one to charge money for the distribution of software.  Despite efforts by
 
copyleft advocates to explain this in GPLv2 itself and in other documents,
 
there are evidently some people who still believe that GPLv2 allows charging
 
for services but not for selling copies of software and/or that the GPL
 
requires downloads to be gratis.  Perhaps this is because GPLv2 referred to
 
charging a ``fee''; the term ``fee'' is generally used in connection with
 
services.
 

	
 
GPLv2's wording also referred to ``the physical act of transferring.''  The
 
intention was to distinguish charging for transfers from attempts to impose
 
licensing fees on all third parties.  ``Physical'' might be read, however, as
 
suggesting ``distribution in a physical medium only''.
 

	
 
To address these two issues, GPLv3 says ``price'' in place of ``fee,'' and
 
removes the term ``physical.''
 

	
 
GPLv3~\S4 has also been revised from its corresponding section in GPLv2 in
 
light of the GPLv3~\S7 (see \S~\ref{GPLv3s7} in this tutorial for more).
 
Specifically, a distributor of verbatim copies of the program's source code
 
must obey any existing additional terms that apply to parts of the program
 
pursuant to GPLv3~\S7.  In addition, the distributor is required to keep
 
intact all license notices, including notices of such additional terms.
 

	
 
Finally, there is no harm in explicitly pointing out what ought to be
 
obvious: that those who convey GPL-covered software may offer commercial
 
services for the support of that software.
 

	
 
\section{GPLv3~\S5: Modified Source}
 
\label{GPLv3s5}
 

	
 
GPLv3\S5 is the rewrite of GPLv2\S2, which was discussed in \S~\ref{GPLv2s2}
 
of this tutorial.  This section discusses the changes found in GPLv3\S5
 
compared to GPLv2\S2.
 

	
 
GPLv3\S5(a) still requires modified versions be marked with ``relevant
 
date'', but no longer says ``the date of any change''.  The best practice is
 
to include the date of the latest and/or most significant changes and who
 
made those.  Of course, compared to its GPLv2\S2(a), GPLv3\S5(a) slightly
 
relaxes the requirements regarding notice of changes to the program.  In
 
particular, the modified files themselves need no longer be marked.  This
 
reduces administrative burdens for developers of modified versions of GPL'd
 
software.
 

	
 
GPLv3\S5(b) is a new but simple provision. GPLv3\S5(b)  requires that the
 
license text itself must be unmodified (except as permitted by GPLv3\S7; see
 
\S~\ref{GPLv3s7} in this tutorial).  Furthermore, it  removes any perceived
 
conflict between the words ``keep intact all notices'' in GPLv3\S4, since
 
operating under GPLv3\S5 still includes all the requirements of GPLv3\S4 by
 
reference.
 

	
 
% FIXME:  It's now (b) and (c).  Also, ``validity'' of proprietary
 
%         relicensing?  Give me a break.  I'll fix that.
 

	
 
GPLv3\S5(c) is the primary source-code-related copyleft provision of GPL (The
 
GPLv3\S5(c) is the primary source-code-related copyleft provision of GPL. (The
 
object-code-related copyleft provisions are in GPLv3\S6, discussed in
 
\S~\ref{GPLv3s6} of this tutorial).  Compared to GPLv2\S2(b), GPLv3\S5(c)
 
states that the GPL applies to the whole of the work.  Such was stated
 
already in GPLv2\S2(b), in ``in whole or in part'', but this simplified
 
wording makes it clear the entire covered work
 

	
 
Another change in GPLv3\S5(c) is the removal of the
 
words ``at no charge,'' which was often is misunderstood upon na\"{i}ve
 
reading of in GPLv2\S(b) (as discussed in \S~\ref{GPLv2s2-at-no-charge} of this
 
tutorial).
 

	
 
%  FIXME: 5d.  Related to Appropriatey Legal notices
 

	
 

	
 
% follows 5d now, call it the ``final paragraph''
 

	
 
The paragraph following subsection 5c has been revised for clarity, but the
 
underlying meaning is unchanged. When independent non-derivative sections are
 
distributed for use in a combination that is a covered work, the whole of the
 
combination must be licensed under the GPL, regardless of the form in which
 
such combination occurs, including combination by dynamic linking. The final
 
sentence of the paragraph adapts this requirement to the new compatibility
 
provisions of section 7.
 

	
 
We have added these words to the aggregation clause to eliminate any question
 
that GPLv3 alters the scope of the copyleft as understood and applied under
 
GPLv2. In GPLv3, as in GPLv2, addition of modules or other parts to a program
 
results in a new program based on the old program, with different functional
 
characteristics created by the merger of two expressions: the original
 
program and the added parts.  Such added parts are ``by their nature
 
extensions of'' the old program, and therefore the entire new program which
 
they and the old program form must be licensed under the GPL.  As subsection
 
5c states, packaging of a work has no bearing on the scope of copyleft.
 

	
 
\section{GPLv3~\S6: Non-Source and Corresponding Source}
 
\label{GPLv3s6}
 

	
 
Section 6 of GPLv3, which clarifies and revises GPLv2 section 3, requires
 
distributors of GPL'd object code to provide access to the corresponding
 
source code, in one of four specified ways. As noted above, ``object code''
 
in GPLv3 is defined broadly to mean any non-source version of a work.
 

	
 
% FIXME:  probably mostly still right, needs some updates, though.
 

	
 
Subsections 6a and 6b now apply specifically to distribution of object code
 
in a physical product. Physical products include embedded systems, as well as
 
physical software distribution media such as CDs. As in GPLv2, the
 
distribution of object code may either be accompanied by the machine-readable
 
source code, or it may be accompanied by a written offer to provide the
 
machine-readable source code to any third party. GPLv3 clarifies that the
 
medium for software interchange on which the machine-readable source code is
 
provided must be a durable physical medium. Subsection 6b does not prevent a
 
distributor from offering to provide source code to a third party by some
 
other means, such as transmission over a network, so long as the option of
 
obtaining source code on a physical medium is presented.
 

	
 
% FIXME:  probably mostly still right, needs some updates, though.
 

	
 
Subsection 6b revises the requirements for the written offer to provide
 
source code. As before, the offer must remain valid for at least three
 
years. In addition, even after three years, a distributor of a product
 
containing GPL'd object code must offer to provide source code for as long as
 
the distributor also continues to offer spare parts or customer support for
 
the product model. We believe that this is a reasonable and appropriate
 
requirement; a distributor should be prepared to provide source code if he or
 
she is prepared to provide support for other aspects of a physical product.
 

	
 
% FIXME: 10x language is gone.
 

	
 
Subsection 6b also increases the maximum permitted price for providing a copy
 
of the source code. GPLv2 stated that the price could be no more than the
 
cost of physically performing source distribution; GPLv3 allows the price to
 
be up to ten times the distributor's cost. It may not be practical to expect
 
some organizations to provide such copies at cost. Moreover, permitting such
 
organizations to charge ten times the cost is not particularly harmful, since
 
some recipient of the code can be expected to make the code freely available
 
on a public network server. We also recognize that there is nothing wrong
 
with profiting from providing copies of source code, provided that the price
 
of a copy is not so unreasonably high as to make it effectively unavailable.
 

	
 
% FIXME:  probably mostly still right, needs some updates, though.
 

	
 
Subsection 6c gives narrower permission than the corresponding subsection in
 
GPLv2.  The option of including a copy of an offer received in accordance
 
with subsection 6b is available only for private distribution of object code;
 
moreover, such private distribution is restricted to ``occasional
 
non-commercial distribution.''  This subsection makes clear that a
 
distributor cannot comply with the GPL merely by making object code available
 
on a publicly-accessible network server accompanied by a copy of the written
 
offer to provide source code received from an upstream distributor.
 

	
 
% FIXME:  probably mostly still right, needs some updates, though.
 

	
 
New subsection 6d, which revises the final paragraph of GPLv2 section 3,
 
addresses distribution of object code by offering access to copy the code
 
from a designated place, such as by enabling electronic access to a network
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