The Free Software Foundation has officially released GPLv3 as of June 29, 2007. This was brought on by the fact that much has changed since version 2 was released back in 1991. The biggest concern is that the previous version did not cover all of the software contained in consumer electronics and appliances.

The Free Software Foundation has made these changes to help ensure that users have as much freedom as possible to use, change, and otherwise modify the items that they own in any that they see fit.

An interesting side note is that Microsoft has released a statement in regards to GPLv3 that explicitly states, “Microsoft is not a party to the GPLv3 license and none of its actions are to be misinterpreted as accepting status as a contracting party of GPLv3 or assuming any legal obligations under such license.”

It seems that while Free Software Foundation is doing everything possible to give consumers the freedom to experiment and use what they have in the way that it would benefit them most, Microsoft stands firm that they are the only ones who should be able to decide how things are used and programmed. It looks like Microsoft wants to give consumers/users as little freedom as possible.