Linux Creator Calls GPLv3 Authors ‘Hypocrites’ As Open Source Debate Turns Nasty

Linux creator Linus Torvalds said the authors of a new software license expected to be used by thousands of open source programmers are a bunch of hypocrites and likened them to religious fanatics — the latest sign of a growing schism in the open source community between business-minded developers like Torvalds and free software purists.

In an online post, Torvalds slammed executives at the Free Software Foundation, likening their mind-set to that of “religious fanatics and totalitarian states.”

The Free Software Foundation last month published a revised version of the General Public License, which governs the use of many open source programs.

Among several provisions viewed by many as anti-business is a GPLv3 rule forbidding commercial users of open source software from prohibiting customer modifications.

The provision was aimed in part at digital recorder manufacturer TiVo, which restricts customers from tampering with the software-based digital rights management technologies built into its boxes. The Free Software Foundation calls such policies “Tivoization” and, in a recent press release, referred to them as “malicious.”

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