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A new, post-post-modern, non-weak copyleft license inspired by, though different from, the GNU GPL. Contributions of patches, ideas, and criticism are welcome (see the file CONTRIBUTING.md for more information). In particular, the Copyleft-Next Project actively seeks the participation of open source/free software project developers who may not have considered helping with license drafting before. License drafting is fundamentally about establishing policies for projects, and therefore input from developers of the highest value.

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Richard Fontana a850e533a0 restored original name of present-day sec. 12 What is now section 12 of GPLv3 (the successor to GPLv2 section 7) bore the heading "Liberty or Death for the Program" in the initial public draft of GPLv3. The heading was, I believe, devised by RMS. This wonderful title was, I think, thought to be too radical-sounding or something (perhaps a vendor or commercial user raised such a concern early on during the GPLv3 drafting process), and so the drafters changed it to "No Surrender of Others' Freedom". The original heading is clearly superior. I have myself taken to calling this provision the "liberty-or-death clause" and such terminology has to some degree caught on with others. In fairness, I recall that RMS also made the point that under this provision the Program does not actually "die"; rather, particular copies of it may become nondistributable. Thus the heading was never truly accurate. But the principal reason for this change was lamentable primness. I have therefore restored the original heading.	2012-07-05 07:55:29 +12:00
CC0	Initial commit	2012-07-04 19:22:45 +12:00
GPL.next	restored original name of present-day sec. 12	2012-07-05 07:55:29 +12:00
README.md	corrected README.md	2012-07-04 19:24:52 +12:00

Richard Fontana a850e533a0 restored original name of present-day sec. 12

What is now section 12 of GPLv3 (the successor to GPLv2 section 7)
bore the heading "Liberty or Death for the Program" in the initial
public draft of GPLv3. The heading was, I believe, devised by
RMS. This wonderful title was, I think, thought to be too
radical-sounding or something (perhaps a vendor or commercial user
raised such a concern early on during the GPLv3 drafting process), and
so the drafters changed it to "No Surrender of Others' Freedom". The
original heading is clearly superior. I have myself taken to calling
this provision the "liberty-or-death clause" and such terminology has
to some degree caught on with others.

In fairness, I recall that RMS also made the point that under this
provision the Program does not actually "die"; rather, particular
copies of it may become nondistributable. Thus the heading was never
truly accurate.  But the principal reason for this change was
lamentable primness.

I have therefore restored the original heading.

2012-07-05 07:55:29 +12:00

CC0

Initial commit

2012-07-04 19:22:45 +12:00

GPL.next

restored original name of present-day sec. 12

2012-07-05 07:55:29 +12:00

README.md

corrected README.md

2012-07-04 19:24:52 +12:00

README.md

GPL.next

GPL.next is a fork of the GNU General Public License, version 3, initiated by Richard Fontana. Contributions of patches, ideas, and criticism are welcome. Forks in the GitHub sense are encouraged. The goal of this effort is to develop an improved strong copyleft free software license.

This is not an effort endorsed by the Free Software Foundation or the GNU project. This is also not an effort associated in any way with Red Hat (Richard Fontana's employer).

The FSF has asserted copyright in the text of the GNU GPLv3. However, the FSF has expressly authorized (though discouraged) modified versions of the GNU GPL, subject to certain conditions: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#ModifyGPL

As requested by the FSF in the aforementioned FAQ, I (Richard Fontana) have thought twice and have decided to proceed with this fork. Note that every effort shall be made to make this fork compatible with all existing versions of the GNU GPL.

The meta-license from the FSF stated in its FAQ shall be the license of all versions of the GPL.next license text (to the extent that such versions retain any copyrightable material from versions of the GNU GPL in which the FSF has asserted copyright). Restated here by me, that meta-license is as follows:

Everyone has permission to use terms from any version of the GNU GPL (with or without modifications) in creating a new license text, without any restriction, other than these requirements: (1) the license must be "call[ed] ... by another name"; (2) no existing version of a GNU license Preamble may be included; and (3) if the instructions-for-use at the end of the GNU GPL are copied or adapted, they must be modified "enough to make it clearly different in wording and not mention GNU".

I consider the name "GPL.next" to be "another name" in the sense meant in this meta-license. (I would consider it a violation of the meta-license to use the "GNU" name, of course.) Contrary to what some believe, the "G" in "GPL" does not stand for "GNU", but "General"; "GPL" means "license to (or for) the general public". As such, the name "GPL" strikes me as having been conceived as generic. Indeed, the common use of "public license" in free software license names without the word "general" probably represents a historical failure to parse "GPL" correctly.

All copyrightable materials included in this project, other than any copied or adapted portions of GNU license texts and except where otherwise indicated, are dedicated to the public domain to the maximum extent permissible under applicable law, pursuant to the Creative Commons CC0 Universal Public Domain Dedication 1.0 (see the file CC0 for details).