Copyleft/guide Files · GPL-Business/gpl-business-abstract.txt

Files @ 4cea1c46451f

Branch filter:

Location: Copyleft/guide/GPL-Business/gpl-business-abstract.txt

4cea1c46451f 2.1 KiB text/plain Show Annotation Show as Raw Download as Raw

bkuhn

Relevant text from GPLv3 First Discussion Draft Rationale of 2006-01-16.

I carefully went through FSF's First Discussion Draft Rationale, which was
published on Monday 16 January 2006 and merged in any relevant text and
descriptions that might be of use in this tutorial.

The raw material used for this commit can be found here:
http://gplv3.fsf.org/gpl-rationale-2006-01-16.html
Specifically, a copy of the LaTeX sources are here:
http://gplv3.fsf.org/gpl-rationale-2006-01-16.tex

As I merged in this text, I added FIXME's where it seemed the text was
incomplete or referred to parts of GPLv3 draft text that disappeared in later
versions.

Finally, note that this material was originally copyrighted and licensed as
follows:

Copyright © 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted
worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the
copyright notice, are preserved.

However, I am hereby relicensing this material to CC-By-SA-4.0, with the
verbal permission from John Sullivan, Executive Director of the FSF, which
was given to me during a conference call on Wednesday 12 February 2014.

     The GNU General Public License for Developers and Businesspeople
     ----------------------------------------------------------------

This tutorial gives a section-by-section explanation of the most popular
Free Software copyright license, the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL),
and teaches software developers, managers and businesspeople how to use
the GPL and GPL'ed software successfully in new Free Software business and
in existing, successful enterprises.

Attendees should have a general familiarity with software development
processes.  A vague understanding of how copyright law applies to software
is also helpful.  The tutorial is of most interest to software developers
and managers who run software businesses that modify and/or redistribute
software under terms of the GNU GPL (or who wish to do so in the future),
and those who wish to make use of existing GPL'ed software in their
enterprise.

This is not a legal tutorial.  By contrast, it explains the GNU GPL to
professionals who are not well versed in the details of copyright law.
Presented by a software developer and manager, this tutorial informs
non-lawyers who wish to have a deeper understanding of how the GNU GPL
uses copyright law to protect software freedom and to assist in the
formation of Free Software businesses.

Upon completion of the tutorial, successful attendees can expect to have
learned:

    * the freedom-defending purpose of each term of the GNU GPL

    * the redistribution options under the GPL

    * the obligations when modifying GPL'ed software

    * how to properly apply the GPL to a new software

    * how to build a plan for proper and successful compliance with the GPL

    * the business advantages that the GPL provides

    * the most common business models used in conjunction with the GPL

    * how existing GPL'ed software can be used in existing enterprises
 
The full tutorial take three hours, with time for plenty of questions and
two fifteen minute breaks.  An abbreviated one-hour talk that introduces
the the issues covered in the full tutorial is also an option.