NewsForge: Brazilian State Struggles to Write Free Software License

“One of the aims in the drafting of the third version of the GNU
General Public License (GPL) is to internationalize the language to
make it easier to translate. Those who doubt the need for this
effort only need to look at the efforts to write an alternative
free license in the Brazilian state of Paraná to change
their minds. Despite the good intentions of its creators, the
alternative license has been labeled as non-free by the Free
Software Foundation (FSF) and its Latin American counterpart, the
FSFLA, and is currently being re-written under some protest–all of
which might have been avoided or minimized had an internationalized
version of the GPL been available.

“Paraná is a state in southern Brazil with one of the
highest standards of living in the country. Its government has a
history of promoting education and health, and in the past has
introduced such initiatives as the banning of genetically modified
foods…”

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