The GNU is one of many licenses that is used in the software world to ensure that software programming may be distributed and protected correctly. Someone who is working in the open source world will benefit quite a lot from the GNU because of the way that is uses its rights. This is a copyleft license that will ensure the user can distribute only under the original license terms. Someone who is working under the GNU will not be exploited by software companies because their work can only be distributed in the same manner as the original program. This is much safer for many different people who are working on the fringes of the industry, and there are companies such as the Linux kernel that are doing quite well under this license because it is much safer for them over the course of the years to be free to distribute as their original programming was.
Any Later Version
There is an Any Later Version clause in this license that ensures that someone who is developing their software may have it apply to any later version of the same program. Someone who needs to be protected because of the development of multiple versions will use the GNU because they know that it is much safer than trying to get a new license every time something comes up. There are many people who get turned around because they are talked into business deals after their first license, and they could be exploited easily. The Any Later Version clause will ensure that all these companies are treated properly long after they have come out with their first version of their software. They are hoping to operate free of big companies, and they depend on this license to safeguard them and their intellectual property.
The Free Software Community Grows
The free software community has been using the GNU for some time, and they have had a hand in ensuring that the license is updated. It was updated last in 2007 to ensure that software companies could not exploit people using the patents of products against their owners. These companies had to be stopped from using the software that was created without servicing later versions. The changes that were made to the GNU ensured that all large software companies had to honor the free software developers who created these programs, and they were forced to allow these companies to upgrade as many times as they wanted. There was no money in it for large software companies, but the GNU allows these two communities to co-exist as the free developers are protected so that they may do their work without the fear of profits overriding their good judgement and decency.