GPL4-Proposal

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This is RepRap's attempt to fix the GPL license so that ... the GPL license is in compliance with RepRap. RepRap is released under the GPL License.

Again, that which is below is a wiki document - anyone can log in and edit. Again - the text below is not the GPL - the text originally was that of GPL 3, but we're hacking it. The working title is "GPL4".

RepRap is planning on continuing to use the GPL for the next 10,000 years. We like it. We will work with the existing scholarly and legal community to help fix the GPL so that it addresses hardware. We are not planning on releasing this ourselves. We would like for the GPL 4 to address hardware.

But some people think we need to help fix it so that it address hardware. --Sebastien Bailard 05:50, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Discussion

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?58,40874

Status

In 1999, Richard Stallman stated that GPL is about copyrightable designs and can't apply to hardware, because hardware can't apply to copyright.[1] It might be moot to try to change his mind in a way fundamental enough to make GPL4 happen.

References

  1. Richard Stallman -- On "Free Hardware", Linux Today, June 22, 1999