Six Months After the Release of the GPLv3, Linux is Still Not Interested

The Linux Foundation has published an interview with Linus Torvalds in which he confirms once again that, 6 months after the release of GPLv3, there’s little interest in moving the Linux kernel to the new version of the GPL. However Torvalds does acknowledge that at some point the kernel might have to move to the […]

396pxlinus_torvalds_talkingThe Linux Foundation has published an interview with Linus Torvalds in which he confirms once again that, 6 months after the release of GPLv3, there's little interest in moving the Linux kernel to the new version of the GPL. However Torvalds does acknowledge that at some point the kernel might have to move to the GPLv3.

In explaining why he isn't interested in the GPLv3 Torvalds makes a point of distinguishing between the goals of the Free Software Foundation (creators of the GPLv3) and the goals of Linux:

In some ways, Linux was the project that really made the split clear between what the FSF is pushing which is very different from what open source and Linux has always been about which is more of a technical superiority instead of a — this religious belief in freedom.

So, the GPL Version 3 reflects the FSF's goals and the GPL Version 2 pretty closely matches what I think a license should do and so right now Version 2 is where the kernel is.

However, that may not last forever. As more and more software packages included in or distributed with the Linux kernel adopt the GPLv3, Linux may have to switch to gain access to the code. Ever the pragmatist Torvalds acknowledges that “one of the few reasons I see why version 3 might be useful is simply there ends up being tons of external code that we feel is really important and worthwhile that is under the version 3 license.”

Torvalds also acknowledges that there are some sticky legal issues underlying any potential change in the Linux kernel licensing give the amount of contributed code which was added under the GPL v2. In that sense adopting the GPLv3 for the Linux Kernel is no different than opting for a completely different license like BSD.

I cannot change the license on my own anymore. I mean, because I have accepted code over the last 15 years by people who kind of accepted my original choice of the GPL Version 2, I'm not just, I think, ethically bound by those people's choices, I am also actually legally bound.

In practical terms, for that to happen, everybody who's a copyright owner really has to agree or the ones who don't agree, their code needs to be rewritten.

In the interview Torvalds also spends a fair amount of time discussing the community aspects of Linux development and other issues. A full transcript of the interview can be found here with audioversions available as well. The second half of the interview will reportedly be available next month.

[via O'Reilly Radar]

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