Why Upgrade to GPL Version 3 - Richard Stallman.
Version 3 of the GNU General Public License will soon be finished,
enabling free software packages to upgrade from GPL version 2. This
article explains why upgrading the license is important.
First of all, it is important to note that upgrading is a choice. GPL
version 2 will remain a valid license, and no disaster will happen if
some programs remain under GPLv2 while others advance to GPLv3. These
two licenses are incompatible, but that isn't a serious problem.
When we say that GPLv2 and GPLv3 are incompatible, it means there is no
legal way to combine code under GPLv2 with code under GPLv3 in a single
program. This is because both GPLv2 and GPLv3 are copyleft licenses:
each of them says, “If you include code under this license in a larger
program, the larger program must be under this license too.” There is no
way to make them compatible. We could add a GPLv2-compatibility clause
to GPLv3, but it wouldn't do the job, because GPLv2 would need a similar
clause.
Fortunately, license incompatibility only matters when you want to link,
merge or combine code from two different programs into a single program.
There is no problem in having GPLv3-covered and GPLv2-covered programs
side by side in an operating system. For instance, the TeX license and
the Apache license are incompatible with GPLv2, but that doesn't stop us
from running TeX and Apache in the same system with Linux, Bash and GCC.
This is because they are all separate programs. Likewise, if Bash and
GCC move to GPLv3, while Linux remains under GPLv2, there is no conflict.
more...
http://gplv3.fsf.org/rms-why.html
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