Re: What license to use for Emacs libraries?

[Tassilo Horn]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl> writes:

>> projects have, equally deliberately and thoughtfully decided to stick
>> with GPLv2 because they care also.
>
> And that is surprising (at least for me).  Are there any reasons to
> prefer GPLv2 ober GPLv3?

I think one reason why the linux kernel stuck to v2 is that v3 forbids
TiVo-ization.  That term basically means that you have the 4 rights the
GPL gives you in theory but practically there is some technical
restriction (e.g., checking digital signatures) that makes it impossible
in practice to actually use a modified version of the software.

The story is: the company TiVo started selling GNU/Linux-based harddrive
TV recorders.  So in theory, you could modify the system to match your
needs but in practice you were not able to install your changes on the
recorder because those were hard-wired to only run a system with the
specific signature of the original installed version.

>From a user freedom's point of view, that's a reason to prefer GPLv3
over v2 but of course different stakeholders have different priorities.

Bye,
Tassilo