CNET News: HP Balks at Patent Provision in GPL Update

"A proposed patent provision in a revamped General Public License isn't sitting well at Hewlett-Packard, raising concerns that two competing versions of the license could survive.

"The GPL governs thousands of open-source projects, and version 3 represent's the Free Software Foundation first explicit attempt to grapple with the thorny issue of software patents. But HP prefers version 2 to the GPLv3 draft released on July 27, arguing that it imposes disproportionate patent consequences for a company that distributes even a single copy of GPLv3 software carrying technology the company has patented..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• CNET News: Torvalds Lambasts Free Software Foundation(Jul 31, 2006)
• NewsForge: Eben Moglen Explains Highlights of GPL3 Second Draft(Jul 30, 2006)
• internetnews.com: HP Not Happy About Patents in GPL 3(Jul 28, 2006)
• CNET News: Torvalds Critical of New GPL Draft(Jul 28, 2006)