frequently misunderstood and, comparing the provisions related to these

issues in the earliest drafts of GPLv3 to  the final version of GPLv3 shows

the FSF's willingness to compromise on tactical issues to reach the larger

goal of software freedom.

Specifically, GPLv3 introduced provisions that respond to the growing

practice of distributing GPL-covered programs in devices that employ

technical means to restrict users from installing and running modified

versions.  This practice thwarts the expectations of developers and users

alike, because the right to modify is one of the core freedoms the GPL is

designed to secure.

Technological measures to defeat users' rights.  These measures are often

described by such Orwellian phrases, such as ``digital rights management,''

which actually means limitation or outright destruction of users' legal

rights, or ``trusted computing,'' which actually means selling people

computers they cannot trust.  However, these measures are alike in one basic

respect.  They all employ technical means to turn the system of copyright law

(where the powers of the copyright holder are limited exceptions to general

freedom) into a virtual prison, where everything not specifically permitted

is utterly forbidden.  This system of ``para-copyright'' was created well

after GPLv2 was written --- initially through legislation in the USA and the

EU, and later in other jurisdictions as well.  This legislation creates

serious civil or even criminal penalties to escape from these restrictions

(commonly and aptly called ``jail-breaking a device''), even where the

purpose in doing so is to restore the users' legal rights that the technology

wrongfully prevents them from exercising.

GPLv2 did not address the use of technical measures to take back the rights

that the GPL granted, because such measures did not exist in 1991, and would

have been irrelevant to the forms in which software was then delivered to

users.  GPLv3 addresses these issues, particularly because copylefted

software is ever more widely embedded in devices that impose technical

limitations on the user's freedom to change it.

However, FSF always made a clear distinction to avoid conflating these

``lock-down'' measures with legitimate applications that give users control,

as by enabling them to choose higher levels of system or data security within

their networks, or by allowing them to protect the security of their

communications using keys they can generate or copy to other devices for

sending or receiving messages.  Such technologies present no obstacles to

software freedom and the goals of copyleft.

The public GPLv3 drafting process sought to balance these positions of

copyleft advocates with various disparate views of the larger

Free-Software-using community.  Ultimately, FSF compromised to the GPLv3\S3

and GPLv3\S6 provisions that, taken together, are a minimalist set of terms

sufficient to protect the software freedom against the threat of invasive

para-copyright.

The compromises made were ultimately quite reasonable.  The primary one is

embodied in GPLv3\S6's ``User Product'' definition (see \S~\ref{user-product}

in this tutorial for details).  Additionally, some readers of early GPLv3

drafts seem to have assumed GPLv3 contained a blanket prohibition on DRM; but

it does not.  In fact, no part of GPLv3 forbids DRM regarding non-GPL'd

works; rather, GPLv3 forbids the use of DRM specifically to lock-down

restrictions on users' ability to install modified versions of the GPL'd

software itself, but again, \textit{only} with regard to User Products.

\section{GPLv3~\S3: What Hath DMCA Wrought}

\label{GPLv3s3}

As discussed in \S~\ref{software-and-non-copyright} of this tutorial,

\href{http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201}{17 USC~\S1201} and

  the ``Digital Millennium Copyright Act'', or ``DMCA'', as that was the name

  of the bill that so-modified these sections of the USC\@.} prohibits users

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 that 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.''