Summary
The Free Software Foundation, the creator of the GNU Public License (GPL), has released the first new version of GPL since 1991. The goals of GPL v3 were to improve the technical quality of the license, strengthen users' rights, improve license compatibility, and strengthen patent defenses. The resulting work will make it easier for application development professionals to get clear guidance from their corporate legal counsel on when the license has implications for open source use and when it does not. Most application development professionals working in typical enterprises using GPL licensed code will not be affected. But open source projects, businesses, and suppliers of devices that embed open source will feel an impact. Certain terms of the GPL v3 have divided the open source community between pragmatists and idealists, but that will heal over time.
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