I'm coding a program and I have the entire GPLv3 license from http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt in a COPYING text file. However, at the end, there's a section on 'How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs'. Do I keep this in COPYING? Is it part of the GPLv3 or a reminder on how to use it?
A:
It is not part of the license terms, but it is part of the license text (if that makes sense). The license itself is a coprighted work, and just like any other copyrighted work, you need to obey its license, which in this case basically just says "don't modify anything."
In particular, the GPL itself is not released under a free license, because that would allow anyone to modify it, which would negate the whole purpose of having a standardized license with a standardized name. In general, standards can never be under a free license, since the whole point of a free license is the ability to modify and the whole point of a standard is that it is the same for everybody. (Note that, of course, the standards document, i.e. the text that describes the standard, may very well be under a free license.)
Jörg W Mittag
2010-09-04 12:41:22