by CIO Staff

No General Public License 3 for Linux

News
Jan 26, 20061 min
Open Source

Linus Torvalds, the software engineer who initiated the development of Linux, said on Wednesday that due to objections he has with digital rights management provisions in the version 3 General Public License (GPL) update, he will not convert the open-source software, CNET News reports.

Though not completely out of the blue, the rejection is significant, as it’s the first to the influential license in 15 years.

Linux is generally excepted as the most efficient open-source software in the world. GPL is the most popular license for free software.

 “I don’t think GPL v3 conversion is going to happen for the kernel,” Torvalds said, “since I personally do not want to convert any of my code.”

Specifically, Torvalds took issue with a provision in the GPL 3 draft that opposes digital rights management. “I think it’s insane to require people to make their private signing key available.  I wouldn’t do it,” he said.

Check out It’s Raining Code (Hallelujah?) and Open Source Moves Up for more on open source.

-Al Sacco