“One of the most important recent events in the world of free
software has been the release of version 3 of the GNU GPL. There
were fierce arguments about its utility while it was being drawn
up, and although the rhetoric has abated somewhat, there is still a
big question mark over its eventual success. Some evidence suggests
that GPLv3 uptake is coming along nicely, while other reports
indicate a reluctance to adopt it (but note also Matt Asay’s neat
reconciliation of these contradictory messages). To see what’s
likely to happen in the long term, it’s useful to look back at the
past history of licence adoption.“The first detailed discussion about licences arose when
companies began offering open source software other than GNU/Linux
distributions…”