Book on Practical GPL Compliance

My former gpl-violations.org colleague Armijn Hemel and Shane Coughlan (former coordinator of the FSFE Legal Network) have written a book on practical GPL compliance issues.

I've read through it (in the bath tub of course, what better place to read technical literature), and I can agree wholeheartedly with its contents. For those who have been involved in GPL compliance engineering there shouldn't be much new - but for the vast majority of developers out there who have had little exposure to the bread-and-butter work of providing complete an corresponding source code, it makes an excellent introductory text.

The book focuses on compliance with GPLv2, which is probably not too surprising given that it's published by the Linux foundation, and Linux being GPLv2.

You can download an electronic copy of the book from https://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/research/practical-gpl-compliance

Given the subject matter is Free Software, and the book is written by long-time community members, I cannot help to notice a bit of a surprise about the fact that the book is released in classic copyright under All rights reserved with no freedom to the user.

Considering the sensitive legal topics touched, I can understand the possible motivation by the authors to not permit derivative works. But then, there still are licenses such as CC-BY-ND which prevent derivative works but still permit users to make and distribute copies of the work itself. I've made that recommendation / request to Shane, let's see if they can arrange for some more freedom for their readers.