GPL v3 v3

(via House of Commons and Groklaw) The third draft of the GPL version 3 is now available for comment. I haven't had much time to go through it in detail, so I will be making comments later, mostly building on previous praises and criticisms here, here and here.

However, one thing I noticed straight away is that there has been one significant change to the anti TPM clause. Version 2 of the draft used to read:

"No covered work constitutes part of an effective technological “protection” measure under section 1201 of Title 17 of the United States Code."

The new draft reads:

"No covered work shall be deemed part of an effective technological measure under any applicable law fulfilling obligations under article 11 of the WIPO copyright treaty adopted on 20 December 1996, or similar laws prohibiting or restricting circumvention of such measures."

I'm very happy about this change because I commented on previous drafts that:

"This makes it evident that what the paragraph is covering is the legal definition of "technical protection measure" found in international treaties and national legislation. Specifically, section 1201 of the U.S. Code is the DMCA anti-circumvention measures provision. This is useful, but if the licence wants to be really international, why not mention the WIPO Copyright Treaty instead?"

Is somebody actually reading my blog?