Bradley M. Kuhn, the founder of the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and former director of the Free Software Foundation, and Richard Fontana, one of the three key authors of the GPLv3 license (the other two being Richard Stallman and Eben Moglen) and former director of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), have announced the resumption of work on the Copyleft-next license. Development of the new license began in 2012 under the name GPL.next, but the project has not progressed since 2016.
The aim of the project is to develop a next-generation copyleft license to replace the GPLv3 license, taking into account the modern realities and needs of corporations developing free projects. It is noted that the GPLv3 license has turned 18 years old, while the GPLv2 has reached 34 years, and during this time, there has been a pressing need in the community to reconsider the application of strict copyleft.
The text of the Copyleft-next license is based on the GPLv3 license, stripped of unnecessary complexities and restrictions, which has improved compatibility with permissive licenses and achieved portability with projects under the Apache license. The license has been significantly shortened and simplified for clarity (for example, the introduction discussing the policy of the Free Software Foundation, the appendix with explanations on application, and references to excessive and outdated compromises have been removed).
One of the fundamental differences from existing copyleft licenses is the ‘Copyleft Sunset’ clause, which cancels the requirements of compliance with copyleft 15 years after the first publication of a work under the Copyleft-next license. In particular, after 15 years, the license becomes permissive, as sections 3-5, which require the distribution of derivative products under the Copyleft-next license, the prohibition on imposing additional restrictions, and the mandatory availability of source code when distributing binary builds, cease to apply.
Another atypical innovation is the annulment of copyleft protection in the case of dual licensing of a project — under the Copyleft-next license and a commercial license. If a product is additionally provided under a commercial license or under terms that contradict the criteria of the OSI or the Free Software Foundation, then in the free version of the product, sections 3-5, which ensure the copyleft protection of the work, cease to apply (the license becomes permissive).
Med funkcionalnostmi Copyleft-next lahko omenimo tudi umik licence v primeru kršitve pogojev uporabe (na primer, če se začne širiti izdelek, ki izhaja, brez dostopa do izvorne kode). Za odpravo kršitve je določen rok 13 dni. Licenca se prav tako umakne osebam, ki so sprožile sodni postopek zaradi kršitve patentov (razen nasprotnih tožb), ki se prekrivajo s projektom pod licenco Copyleft-next.
Izvor: opennet.ru
