Why Upgrade to GPL Version 3

If you are a developer and unsure whether or not you should be upgrading your softwares license to GPLv3, Richard Stallman lays it out pretty well.

One major danger that GPLv3 will block is tivoization. Tivoization means computers (called “appliances”) contain GPL-covered software that you can’t change, because the appliance shuts down if it detects modified software. The usual motive for tivoization is that the software has features the manufacturer thinks lots of people won’t like. The manufacturers of these computers take advantage of the freedom that free software provides, but they don’t let you do likewise.

The reasons do not end there. Others include better internationalization, BitTorrent support and Apache license compatibility. One of the greatest benefits though, is the fact that companies who use the license with their application and give you full freedom to their patents, cannot later turn around and use it against you. This is a great read even for the non-developer.

Source: Free Software Foundation