%% that it creates complexity that did not previously exist.  We point out to

%% those readers that there is already GPLv2-licensed code that carries

%% additional terms.  One of the objectives of section 7 is to rationalize

%% existing practices of program authors and modifiers by setting clear

%% guidelines regarding the removal and addition of such terms.  With its

%% carefully limited list of allowed additional requirements, section 7

%% accomplishes additional objectives, permitting the expansion of the base of

%% code available for GPL developers, while also encouraging useful

%% experimentation with requirements we do not include in the GPL itself.

\section{GPLv3~\S8: A Lighter Termination}

GPLv2 provided for automatic termination of the rights of a person who

copied, modified, sublicensed, or distributed a work in violation of the

license.  Automatic termination can be too harsh for those who have committed

an inadvertent violation, particularly in cases involving distribution of

large collections of software having numerous copyright holders.  A violator

who resumes compliance with GPLv2 technically needs to obtain forgiveness

from all copyright holders, and even contacting them all might be impossible.

GPLv3~\S8 replaces now grants opportunities for provisional and permanent

reinstatement of rights. The termination procedure provides a limited

opportunity to cure license violations.  If a licensee has committed a

first-time violation of the GPL with respect to a given copyright holder, but

the licensee cures the violation within 30 days following receipt of notice

of the violation, then any of the licensee's GPL rights that have been

terminated by the copyright holder are ``automatically reinstated''.

Finally, if a licensee violates the GPL, a contributor may terminate any

patent licenses that it granted under GPLv3~\S11, in addition to any

copyright permissions the contributor granted to the licensee.

% FIXME-LATER: write more here, perhaps linking up to enforcement

\section{GPLv3~\S9: Acceptance}

GPLv3~\S9 means what it says: mere receipt or execution of code neither

requires nor signifies contractual acceptance under the GPL.  Speaking more

broadly, GPLv3 is intentionally structured our license as a unilateral grant

of copyright permissions, the basic operation of which exists outside of any

law of contract.  Whether and when a contractual relationship is formed

between licensor and licensee under local law do not necessarily matter to

the working of the license.

\section{GPLv3~\S10: Explicit Downstream License}

Careful readers of the GPL have suggested that its explicit prohibition

against imposition of further restrictions\footnote{GPLv2, section 6; Draft

  3, section 10, third paragraph.} has, or ought to have, implications for

those who assert patents against other licensees.  Draft 2 took some steps to

clarify this point in a manner not specific to patents, by describing the

imposition of ``a license fee, royalty, or other charge'' for exercising GPL

rights as one example of an impermissible further restriction.  In Draft 3 we

have clarified further that the requirement of non-imposition of further

restrictions has specific consequences for litigation accusing GPL-covered

programs of infringement.  Section 10 now states that ``you may not initiate

litigation (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging

that any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling, offering for

sale, or importing the Program (or the contribution of any contributor).''

That is to say, a patent holder's licensed permissions to use a work under

GPLv3 may be terminated under section 8 if the patent holder files a lawsuit

alleging that use of the work, or of any upstream GPLv3-licensed work on

which the work is based, infringes a patent.

\section{GPLv3~\S11: Explicit Patent Licensing}

\label{GPLv3s11}

The patent licensing practices that section 7 of GPLv2 (corresponding to

section 12 of GPLv3) was designed to prevent are one of several ways in which

software patents threaten to make free programs non-free and to prevent users

from exercising their rights under the GPL. GPLv3 takes a more comprehensive

approach to combatting the danger of patents.

Software patenting is a harmful and unjust policy, and should be abolished;

recent experience makes this all the more evident. Since many countries grant

patents that can apply to and prohibit software packages, in various guises

and to varying degrees, we seek to protect the users of GPL-covered programs

from those patents, while at the same time making it feasible for patent

holders to contribute to and distribute GPL-covered programs as long as they

do not attack the users of those programs.

It is generally understood that GPLv2 implies some limits on a licensee's

power to assert patent claims against the use of GPL-covered works.

Therefore, we have designed GPLv3 to reduce the patent risks that distort and

threaten the activities of users who make, run, modify and share free

software.  At the same time, we have given due consideration to practical

goals such as certainty and administrability for patent holders that

participate in distribution and development of GPL-covered software.  Our

policy requires each such patent holder to provide appropriate levels of

patent assurance to users, according to the nature of the patent holder's

relationship to the program.

Draft 3 features several significant changes concerning patents.  We have

made improvements to earlier wording, clarified when patent assertion becomes

a prohibited restriction on GPL rights, and replaced a distribution-triggered

non-assertion covenant with a contribution-based patent license grant. We

have also added provisions to block collusion by patent holders with software

distributors that would extend patent licenses in a discriminatory way.

Draft 3 introduces the terms ``contributor'' and ``contribution,'' which are

used in the third paragraph of section 10 and the first paragraph of section

11, discussed successively in the following two subsections.  Section 0

defines a contributor as ``a party who licenses under this License a work on

which the Program is based.'' That work is the ``contribution'' of that

contributor.  In other words, each received GPLv3-covered work is associated

with one or more contributors, making up the finite set of upstream GPLv3

licensors for that work. Viewed from the perspective of a recipient of the

Program, contributors include all the copyright holders for the Program,

other than copyright holders of material originally licensed under non-GPL

terms and later incorporated into a GPL-covered work.  The contributors are

therefore the initial GPLv3 licensors of the Program and all subsequent

upstream licensors who convey, under the terms of section 5, modified works

on which the Program is based.