This is a significant reworking of the current draft, but most of the
changes aren't really substantive. Definitions once again are pushed
to the end. The 'pass through' statement is where I think it ought to
be, in the initial license grant section. Again, an effort to deal
with implementation of copyleft through terminology. Hopefully this
approach is a little simpler. It relies on the definition of 'Covered
Work'. The 'Enhancement' term is gone.
I recently learned of some horrifying statements Stallman made
concerning children with Down syndrome. I can no longer countenance
anything that could be seen as an indication that Stallman should be
seen as an authority figure or figure worthy of respect. The only
purpose inclusion of this quote served was to provide some
legitimization of copyleft-next for that subset of people inclined to
think that a 'fork' of the GPL (as copyleft-next originally was) was
of questionable legitimacy if not authorized by the Free Software
Foundation.
Provifing definition for "Enhancement" in Definitions section.
Enhancement was previously defined but during reorganization
of the definitions its definition text was effectively merged into
the definition of "Covered Work". Enhancement is still being used
as a defined term (with one exception) and thus needs at least a
minimal definition.
The MPL 2.0-influenced GPL compatibility provision of section 3
arguably is problematic because it can be read as clashing with the
GPL's copyleft requirement to license the "entire" modified work under
the GPL. I believe the conflict is illusory because one cannot grant a
copyright license covering what one does not hold copyright
on. Nevertheless, having looked at this provision with fresh eyes, I
can foresee it being criticized. The change makes the provision more
like a typical relicensing clause in licenses that aim at outbound GPL
compatibility.
The latter part of section 4 is meant to cover the inbound license
compatibility problem, but the existing version is not clearly
inapplicable to the situation where one is combining copyleft-next
code with GPL code. I believe the change made here is useful as it
does not cover the case where you would have noncompliance with the
other license (as for example in a GPL|copyleft-next combination
scenario, if you ignore the existence of the latter part of section
3).
'Pertinent' in notice preservation provision is removed; Adam argues
this limitation could encourage noncompliance.
Add statutory damages to LoL provision.
Clarify exception to the source URL requirement in cases where
Products include Corresponding Source.
Get rid of definition of legal entity in 'I'/'You' definition. Adam
argues: "This makes it easier and cheaper to bring corporate entities
into compliance with copyleft-next; enforcement through litigation
won't need to delve as deeply into proving how an the infringing
corporate body is governed." I'm not sure I agree with that, but it's
fairly clear now that the absence of a legal entity definition in
GPLv2 and GPLv3 has not itself had any effect on corporate adoption of
or compliance with those licenses.
