Torvalds rages over GPL reform

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 15 Jun 2007 at 11:05

Linux guru Linus Torvalds has launched a searing attack on the Free Software Foundation (FSF) over the controversial new version of the General Public License (GPL).

Torvalds and the FSF have been at odds over the proposed third version of the GPL, with Torvalds disagreeing with attempts to outlaw DRM in the new license.

There were signs that Torvalds was coming round to the new license, but in a sensational email exchange with FSFLA (Free Software Foundation Latin America) board member Alexandre Oliva, Torvalds tears into the organisation's ideology.

'The FSF thinks that they own the definition of "freedom",' Torvalds claims.

'You're acting like some Alice-in-Wonderland character, saying that your definition of words is the only one that matter. And that others are
"confused". Read up on your humpty-dumpty some day.'

'I'm damn fed up with the FSF being the "protector of freedoms", and also feeling that they can define what those freedoms mean,' he writes.

He also launches a personal attack on FSF founder Richard Stallman, who wants the GPL v3 to outlaw DRM technology in devices such as the Tivo PVR, which runs on open-source software. 'Rms [Stallman] calls it "tivoization", but that's a word he has made up, and a term I find offensive, so I don't choose to use it,' Torvalds writes.

'It's offensive because Tivo never did anything wrong, and the FSF even acknowledged that. The fact [is] that they do their hardware and have some DRM issues with the content producers and thus want to protect the integrity of that hardware.'

You can read the full text of Torvald's outburst here.