Dear friends,
as many of you will already know, work on the GNU General Public License Version 3 is scheduled to begin soon. Because there are so many interests and stakeholders, that process is going to be quite an undertaking that is expected to continue through all of 2006.
The global effort will be coordinated by Eben Moglen with the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) on behalf of the Free Software Foundation in Boston. In Europe, the process will be handled in cooperation between the SFLC and the Free Software Foundation Europe.
The current rough sketch for the process is to invite some people into so-called "advisory committees" which will first help to determine the milestones and rules for global participation. These guidelines are then supposed to come out in November/December 2005. That way everyone knows the ground rules before the discussions begin.
In the first weeks of 2006, the first draft of GPLv3 shall be put in public, ready for comments. It will be accompanied by a paper that explains in detail why each change was made and what effect it has.
A series of public meetings, conferences and such will then structure the discussion process throughout 2006: one of the most important for us will be a conference on the possibilities and circumstances of nationalised/translated version of GPLv3 to be held in Europe, co-organised by SFLC (on behalf of FSF US) and FSFE.
If things go as planned, by the end of 2006 all voices should have been heard, all arguments considered, so we will be able to have Richard and Eben announce the final GPLv3 in early 2007.
Getting there will be no small feat, and we will need your help.
Firstly, since I will be handling that coordination on behalf of FSFE, Eben has asked me to identify and invite the Europeans that should become part of the advisory committees.
So I would like to ask all of you, our national teams and associate organisations, to consider that question and let us know who you think should be invited by email to team@fsfeurope.org.
Secondly, we will need another list of people for that translation conference. It would seem natural and useful for both lists to share several names.
This process touches upon our very heart, the GPL and will be a lot of work, so we expect tempers to run high and it seems likely Eben and a lot of other people to have their hands entirely full.
The Free Software Foundation Europe will do everything it can to make sure this process is a huge succes. We hope you will help us with that. So, in order to make it a little easier to be heard and discuss ideas with people who are also interested, a mailing list
GPLv3@fsfeurope.org
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/gplv3
has been created for that very purpose. Please feel free to join.
If you think there is a problem, if there is a major point that you wish to raise, feel free to raise it on that list.
Regards, Georg
Hi all,
I'd like to inform you that the time for suggesting people to nominate for the Advisory Committees on GPLv3 is running out soon. Please make sure to let us know who you think should be involved until:
WEDNESDAY, 31. August 2005, 18:00
For the candidates, try thinking along the lines of
* major GPL project coordinators
* major industrial players dealing with the GPL
* major political/public administration players dealing with the GPL
and not so much along the lines of "friends". People inside the FSFE and friends will always be able to be and make themselves heard.
A main purpose of the GPLv3 Advisory Committees is to provide a path of involvement for people who do not have such direct connections and ways of communication.
So by suggesting people you work with in public administration, for instance, you could make sure they will be more understanding of your arguments in the future, because they will then understand much more of the reasoning behind it.
Regards, Georg