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2007 · Open source

GPLv3: how the free software licence was rewritten

Last reviewed 5 October 2026

After 18 months of public drafting, the Free Software Foundation published version 3 of the GNU General Public License in June 2007.

Why a new version

GPL version 2 dated from 1991. By the mid-2000s software patents, digital restrictions management and devices that ran free software but refused modified versions raised questions the old text did not answer.

The Free Software Foundation, with legal work led by Eben Moglen and the Software Freedom Law Center, began a public drafting process in January 2006. Drafts were published for comment and revised over the following year and a half.

What changed

GPLv3 added an explicit patent licence from contributors and terms aimed at patent deals that protected only some users. That was a response to the 2006 Microsoft–Novell agreement.

It also addressed “tivoisation”: consumer devices that ship GPL software but block users from running modified versions. GPLv3 requires installation information for such user products. It also improved compatibility with other licences and clarified international terms.

Reception

The final licence was published on 29 June 2007. Many GNU projects moved to it, but the Linux kernel stayed on GPLv2, with Linus Torvalds and other kernel developers objecting to the anti-tivoisation terms. The split meant two widely used GPL versions now coexist across the open-source world.

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