Re: [Fsfe-uk] GPLv3 last days for comment, and other news links

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

MJ Ray <address@hidden> writes:
> I'm surprised if GPLv3's authors are ignorant of the problems this has

Of course there're not.  Fixing those problems with Firefox was one of RMS's
checklist items for gNewSense, so he knows about it.  And the GNU project is
working on Gnuzilla:
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/
so the GNU project knows about these problems.

> caused for the GNU and debian projects, or think it's not worth
> addressing when the more limited (at present) problem of swpat is.

The only reason that swpat is such a limited problem, at present, is that
people worked from 1998 until 2005 to prevent a directive that would have
made 50,000 software patents valid.  All those software patents are still
sitting around, and more are still being granted, and there are new
proposals for how to validate them all (EPLA, Community Patent, etc.).

Swpat is a huge potential problem, and requires ongoing work at present as
well as planning for the future (as GPLv3 does).

I'd say their trademark activities are hurting Mozilla more than helping
them, and rather than it spreading, Mozilla may eventually see sense and
start behaving like other members of the community.

There're enough signs to justify a wait and see approach.

-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan __________________ \ http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \  GPLv3 and other work supported by
http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \   Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org