The Free Software Foundation has released the first public draft of version 3 of the Gnu Public License. The rationale document might be a more interesting place to start reading to about what they've changed so far and why.

Updates:

Note that folks using non-Gecko based browsers are not able to view or add comments about the draft on the web site but you can submit comments via email.

For those who can't read the draft easily on the official website, Tim Bray has put up an easy to read version that is suitable for printing.

Simon Phipps and Danese Cooper co-wrote their notes from the release presentation.

Finding yourself naked, in public, is a dream/nightmare that many people have. It could just be me but when I was first starting to program, I had a nightmare that not only was I coding naked but my code was naked, too. Partly in response to that, I became much more diligent about writing excellent code so that I'd never be embarrassed by my software.

Over the years, I've joked with various people that I "code naked" but most folks stop at the (all too frightening) image of me coding while naked. Alas, I've never thought about a more palatable phrase enough to come up with anything worth mentioning. Various industries like to use the term transparency but methinks that's too opaque and wishy-washy.

A student of Bob Koss comes to the rescue with the term Refrigerator Code:

It's code that you’re so proud of that you want to take it home and hang it on the refrigerator, right alongside of your children’s drawings.

On the other hand, one of the underlying reasons of Why Software Sucks is the fact that most software written is really what I call Toilet Code:

It's code that's so mediocre that when somebody encounters it, they just want to flush it down the toilet.

Kim Burchett posted a great story illustrating the Misunderstandings that happen in the software business. Hilarious, in a sad, scary, and all too true way.