> the GPLv3 was simply far too scary for companies.
The FSF made a huge effort to make GPLv3 not scary. They tried to involve absolutely everyone, and tried to take everyone’s concern into account. The GPLv3 was made to be not scary.
The GPLv3 instead became “scary” not because anything scary in it, but because of a huge FUD campaign from large companies who didn’t want people to switch from GPLv2 to GPLv3, since the companies wanted to keep exploiting the loopholes in the old v2. For those old enough to remember, this was mostly the same old FUD campaign against the GPL (any GPL) versus a permissive license, many years before that. But, largely thanks to Linux, the GPL slowly won over that old batch of FUD. With the GPLv3, however, the opportunity was there to start it all up again. The GPLv3 is slowly winning against the FUD this time too, but it hasn’t prevailed yet, and Linux is not here to help this time.
The FSF made a huge effort to make GPLv3 not scary. They tried to involve absolutely everyone, and tried to take everyone’s concern into account. The GPLv3 was made to be not scary.
The GPLv3 instead became “scary” not because anything scary in it, but because of a huge FUD campaign from large companies who didn’t want people to switch from GPLv2 to GPLv3, since the companies wanted to keep exploiting the loopholes in the old v2. For those old enough to remember, this was mostly the same old FUD campaign against the GPL (any GPL) versus a permissive license, many years before that. But, largely thanks to Linux, the GPL slowly won over that old batch of FUD. With the GPLv3, however, the opportunity was there to start it all up again. The GPLv3 is slowly winning against the FUD this time too, but it hasn’t prevailed yet, and Linux is not here to help this time.