Copyleft Enhancement, From GPLv2 to GPLv3: Even in 2023 We're Seeing High-Profile Licence Upgrades
Video: Eben Moglen: GPLv3 is not about Microsoft and Novell
THE post is about VirtualBox, but before we proceed it is worth reproducing the above - or on the left side - video in full in order to remove misconceptions, knowing that its creator is now dead and Google is culling accounts that are no longer used (i.e. dead people too). That's aside from Google's now-much-accelerated attack on Invidious [1, 2] and ongoing war on video downloaders. Yes, even people trying to download their own videos. Google hired way too many people from Microsoft and over time it behaves like Microsoft - to the point of implementing (A)GPL bans and outsourcing code to a proprietary Microsoft prison, GitHub. Microsoft is attacking the GPL right now using mass plagiarism disguised as "Hey Hi" (AI) and Microsoft got sued for it (class action), so it keeps bribing and infiltrating the OSI, hoping to make this seem or at least sound "OK".
In this old video Eben Moglen explains that GPLv3 is not about Microsoft and Novell. It's about software freedom and it is about protecting it.
"I notice the term 'open-source' is basically open washing and not the equivalent of 'open source' despite the similarity in spelling," one reader told us yesterday.
That can also be read as "openwashed", "fake source", "fauxopen", "pseudo-source", or "proprietary" for short. There's no lack of examples. Just over a day ago, on Tuesday, we saw this article stating: "The company said its open-source SimpleSafetyTests offering will help developers to identify any critical errors or safety risks within almost any large language..."
Notice the dash in "open-source" and pay attention to the openwashing of so-called 'Hey Hi' (not) models. Facebook does that too. Another new example says "using open-source tools and models."
Same nonsense.
"Open Source", even without the dash, is compromised. Microsoft infiltrated the OSI and the OSI's co-founder complained that some people who make decisions inside the OSI are effectively taking bribes from the companies they decide on. He named culprits.
But anyway, copyleft is still popular (Microsoft spreads FUD to the contrary) and the "Download VirtualBox" page says that VirtualBox has moved from GPLv2 to GPLv3 as of the latest version (7.0.12).
Nice Christmas present for VirtualBox users?
To quote: "The binaries are released under the terms of the GPL version 3. [...] The binaries in this section for VirtualBox before version 4.0 are all released under the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL). As of VirtualBox 4.0, the Extension Pack is released under the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License and the other packages (including version 6.1.x) are released under the terms of the GPL version 2. By downloading, you agree to the terms and conditions of the respective license."
Folks can also see this discussion that points out the "important part is that does it mean any GPLv2-only code can be re-licensed under GPLv3 by Oracle."
There is nothing evil about the GPLv3; Microsoft ran a smear campaign against it about 15 years ago and it used lobby/pressure groups to poison people's minds. We really ought to organise all this old information.
In the coming days and weeks we'll massively rework and redo our wiki, a decade and a half too late perhaps, as last night we had a sort of 'vision' of how to rebuild the wiki. One obvious issue is that wikis are flat structures (entries are just terms), however we need to change to hierarchical and expand in a way that makes it easier to track issues, not based on single articles but a sorted pool of articles. The time to work on the wiki heavily is fast approaching. For most people on this planet the shortest day is today/tomorrow. For the nocturnal among us this is fine.█
