"I am going to make this a short entry, because basically I am
just trying to get a question answered that's been sticking with me
all day.
"When I first read the new draft of the GPL v3 license this
morning, I thought it would be a good idea to post the whole thing
up on LT so people could comment on it directly if they
wanted..."
FSF: GPLv3: A Grandfather Clause, But Not For Novell
"One point in particular that's drawing a lot of attention
already is the bracketed clause in section 11. We've proposed
language that would prohibit distributors from entering
discriminatory patent deals like the one between Microsoft and
Novell; the text in brackets is still under consideration, and
would make that effective only against deals that were made
starting today. If the text is removed, the draft would be
'retroactive' because it would prohibit companies from distributing
GPLv3ed software if they've already entered such a deal. That's as
far back as it can go--we don't have a magic trick to retroactively
stop those companies from distributing software under
GPLv2...."
